Re: [Docutils-users] Removing certain elements from reSTX markup

[David G. <go...@py...>]

Morten W. Petersen wrote:
>> What do you mean?  Remove marked-up text from a document, or remove
>> functionality from the parser?
> 
> Remove functionality from the parser, make the parser ignore certain
> elements

First, why?  What's your use case?  The simplest solution is, just don't use
that markup in your documents.  If it's important, make it a policy decision
in your organization.

Second, what should the parser do with the markup it ignores?

Third, which type of markup do you want to suppress, inline markup or
block-level markup?

The parser (implemented in module docutils.parsers.rst.states) deals with
the two separately and differently.  Block-level markup is recognized via an
ordered dispatch table; remove the entry for the markup you don't want, and
it won't be recognized.  Inline markup (class Inliner) is recognized with a
large regular expression (Inliner.patterns.initial) that's built from a data
structure (Inliner.parts), plus a table for standalone/implicit markup (URLs
etc.; Inliner.implicit_dispatch).  Alter the data structure, rebuild and
reinstall the regexp, and go from there.  Of course, you should work on
subclasses or instances so as not to step on toes.

The parser is not set up for this to be really easy to do, because it hasn't
been needed yet.

> (without using the :: markup).

What does this mean?

-- David Goodger    http://starship.python.net/~goodger

Programmer/sysadmin for hire: http://starship.python.net/~goodger/cv