.yc File Format Specifications

Drew Monroe, Sailesh Simhadri, Joseph Sweeney, Soumya Kundu, Ian Dechene
University of Connecticut

Introduction

    This document outlines the specifications for writing files in the .yc file
    format. Currently, this file format can be parsed by our python parser to
    generate HTML pages.

Status of this Document

    This document is currently a draft and is subject to change without notice.

Definitions

1.  The terms "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD",
    "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to
    be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
2.  The "[" and "]" characters will be referred to in this document as the
    BRACKET characters. The "[" character will be referred to as the
    OPEN BRACKET character, and the "]" character will be referred to as the
    CLOSED BRACKET character. When talking about both characters, the term
    BRACKETS will be used.
3.  The "\" character will be referred to in this document as the BACKSLASH
    character.

Specifications

1.  All text that is desired to be parsed MUST be enclosed by BRACKETS. The
    first character MUST be the OPEN BRACKET character, and the last character
    MUST be the CLOSED BRACKET character. All keywords MUST be enclosed by the
    BRACKETS to be interpreted by the parser
2.  Text that is not enclosed by the BRACKETS will be treated as normal text.
3.  In the event that a BRACKET is to be interpreted literally in the text,
    it MUST be escaped by a BACKSLASH character.
4.  Words inside BRACKETS MUST be separated by a single space.
5.  Keyword arguments (for example x=10) MUST NOT have a space between the
    name of the argument and the equal sign, and MUST NOT have a space between
    the equal sign and the value of the argument.
6.  The first word inside BRACKETS MUST represent the type of the object
    and MUST be one of the following:
        - Line
        - Circle
        - Center
        - Point
        - Polygon
        - Loc
        - Step
        - Clear
7.  In order to be referenced, an object MUST have a name parameter assigned.
8.  The second word inside BRACKETS MAY represent the name of the object and
    SHALL be the name of the points that define that object, each represented by a
    single character.
9.  If an name is defined through a keyword, the name SHALL NOT be parsed into points.
10. All arguments to an object MUST be keyword arguments, excluding the name and type.
11. For the “center” keyword, the third word inside the BRACKETS MUST be “circle=ABC”
    where ABC MUST be the name of the circle object.
12. For the “loc” keyword, keyword arguments of "x" and "y" MUST be provided
    representing the x and y coordinates of the geometric object.
13. For each point specified, either explicitly by the “point” keyword, or implicitly
    by using a “line”, “circle”, “center”, or “polygon” keyword, there MUST be a
    corresponding “loc” keyword to provide coordinates for that point.
14. It is RECOMMENDED that text be marked up and is RECOMMENDED that the object not be
    added to the text. For example, if the text was “Let line AB a given finite
    straight line”, the markup should be “Let [line AB] be a given finite straight line”
    and not “Let line [line AB] be a give finite straight line”, as the latter will
    result in the word “line” being  displayed twice.
15. The user MAY specify steps in the markup which will represent groups of elements
    to be displayed together in the frontend. This allows the user to create animated
    steps in the frontend construction. All elements created between two [step]
    commands will be displayed together, and in every subsequent [step] command.
16. The user MAY use the “clear” keyword as a way to remove all visualization from the screen.
17. The user MAY use the “hidden” keyword to not have the object be added to the text.
18. The user MAY use the “text” keyword to replace the default text that will be placed
    for the object.
    For example, “[Line AB text=”line 1”]” Will place the text “line 1”, instead of
    “Line AB” in the output text.