This is more of an algorithmic dilemma than a language-specific problem, but since I'm currently using Ruby I'll tag this as such. I've already spent over 20 hours on this and I would've never believed it if someone told me writing a LaTeX parser was a walk in the park in comparison.
I have a loop to read hierarchies (that are prefixed with \m) from different files
art.tex: \m{Art}
graphical.tex: \m{Art}{Graphical}
me.tex: \m{About}{Me}
music.tex: \m{Art}{Music}
notes.tex: \m{Art}{Music}{Sheet Music}
site.tex: \m{About}{Site}
something.tex: \m{Something}
whatever.tex: \m{Something}{That}{Does Not}{Matter}
and I need to sort them alphabetically and print them out as a tree
About
Me (me.tex)
Site (site.tex)
Art (art.tex)
Graphical (graphical.tex)
Music (music.tex)
Sheet Music (notes.tex)
Something (something.tex)
That
Does Not
Matter (whatever.tex)
in (X)HTML
<ul>
<li>About</li>
<ul>
<li><a href="me.tex">Me</a></li>
<li><a href="site.tex">Site</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="art.tex">Art</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="graphical.tex">Graphical</a></li>
<li><a href="music.tex">Music</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="notes.tex">Sheet Music</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li><a href="something.tex">Something</a></li>
<ul>
<li>That</li>
<ul>
<li>Doesn't</li>
<ul>
<li><a href="whatever.tex">Matter</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
using Ruby without Rails, which means that at least Array.sort and Dir.glob are available.
All of my attempts were formed like this (as this part should work just fine).
def fss_brace_array(ss_input)#a concise version of another function; converts {1}{2}...{n} into an array [1, 2, ..., n] or returns an empty array
ss_output = ss_input[1].scan(%r{\{(.*?)\}})
rescue
ss_output = []
ensure
return ss_output
end
#define tree
s_handle = File.join(:content.to_s, "*")
Dir.glob("#{s_handle}.tex").each do |s_handle|
File.open(s_handle, "r") do |f_handle|
while s_line = f_handle.gets
if s_all = s_line.match(%r{\\m\{(\{.*?\})+\}})
s_all = s_all.to_a
#do something with tree, fss_brace_array(s_all) and s_handle
break
end
end
end
end
#do something else with tree
