perlpod/perldoc Q: I want asterisk bullets

[J Krugman]

I'm writing a POD page, and I want my itemized lists to use asterisks
for bullets, like this:

* first item

* second item

* etc., etc.

So I write my POD source like this:

=over

=item *

first item

=item *

second item

=item *

etc., etc.

=back

But, when I run perldoc on my POD file, what I see on the screen is

o first item

o second

o etc., etc.

What's really annoying is that all the other POD pages installed
on my system (e.g. perlpod.pod) use the exact same POD source code
(i.e. "=item *", etc.) as what I'm using, and yet when these other
pages are displayed, the lists have asterisks, not o's for bullets.

What's going on here?

TIA!

jill

 

[J Krugman]

J Krugman ([email protected]) wrote on MMMMCCVII September
MCMXCIII in <URL:


I'm writing a POD page, and I want my itemized lists to use asterisks
for bullets, like this:

* first item

* second item

* etc., etc.

So I write my POD source like this:

=over

=item *

first item

=item *

second item

=item *

etc., etc.

=back

But, when I run perldoc on my POD file, what I see on the screen is

o first item

o second

o etc., etc.

What's really annoying is that all the other POD pages installed
on my system (e.g. perlpod.pod) use the exact same POD source code
(i.e. "=item *", etc.) as what I'm using, and yet when these other
pages are displayed, the lists have asterisks, not o's for bullets.

It might help to tell us what pod translator you used (pod2man, pod2text,
pod2html, something else), what version of the tool you used, what version
of Perl you used, and to gives us a small POD sample that exhibits the
same problem.

I used the perldoc executable that came with perl v5.8.4, as in

% perldoc readme.pod

The perl used is v5.8.4. As for an example, what I already posted
is pretty much it. On the screen it looks like this:

README(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation README(1)



o first item

o second item

o etc., etc.



perl v5.8.4 2005-03-08 README(1)




What's puzzling me is that when I use the same programs (perl/perldoc
v5.8.4) to display a pod file (e.g. the perlpod.pod file included
in the Perl distribution) that uses the exact same directives for
its bullets as I use, the displayed bullets are asterisks, not o's.

I need to play some more with this to pinpoint the problem more
precisely.

jill

 

[J Krugman]

OK, here's an example that exhibits some annoying behavior:

=over

=item *

whatever:

=over

=item *

first item

=item *

second item

=item *

etc., etc.

=back

=back



It looks like this when displayed using perl/perldoc v5.8.4:



TEST(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation TEST(1)



o whatever:

o first item

o second item

o etc., etc.



perl v5.8.4 2005-03-08 TEST(1)


If I change the very first =item line in the source to

=item ?

where ? stands for anything other than *, the outer bullet is
rendered as ? (whatever it is) and the inner bullets are rendered
as *'s. But I have not found the incantation to render all bullets
as *'s.

jill

 

[Sisyphus]

OK, here's an example that exhibits some annoying behavior:

=over

=item *

whatever:

=over

=item *

first item

=item *

second item

=item *

etc., etc.

=back

=back



It looks like this when displayed using perl/perldoc v5.8.4:



TEST(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation TEST(1)



o whatever:

o first item

o second item

o etc., etc.



perl v5.8.4 2005-03-08 TEST(1)

Try calling perldoc with the -t switch (calls pod2text). Fixes it for me
- though I don't know how that relates to what you're doing.

My guess is that when you call these other pod files, you're using
pod2text (somehow), and when you call your own pod file you're not using
pod2text (somehow).

Cheers,
Rob

Cheers,
Rob

 

[Steven Kuo]

OK, here's an example that exhibits some annoying behavior:

=over

=item *

whatever:

=over

=item *

first item

=item *

second item

=item *

etc., etc.

=back

=back



It looks like this when displayed using perl/perldoc v5.8.4:



TEST(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation TEST(1)



o whatever:

o first item

o second item

o etc., etc.



perl v5.8.4 2005-03-08 TEST(1)


If I change the very first =item line in the source to

=item ?

where ? stands for anything other than *, the outer bullet is
rendered as ? (whatever it is) and the inner bullets are rendered
as *'s. But I have not found the incantation to render all bullets
as *'s.

jill

Try using the null formating code for the first bullet (see perldoc
perlpod):

=over

=item Z<>*

whatever:

=over

=item *

first item

etc.


Works here (v5.8.6 built for sun4-solaris).