NAME
    LaTeX::Pod - Transform LaTeX source files to POD (Plain old
    documentation)

SYNOPSIS
     use LaTeX::Pod;

     $parser = LaTeX::Pod->new('/path/to/source');
     print $parser->convert;

DESCRIPTION
    `LaTeX::Pod' converts LaTeX sources to Perl's POD (Plain old
    documentation). Currently only a subset of the available LaTeX language
    is supported; see SUPPORTED LANGUAGE SUBSET for further details.

CONSTRUCTOR
  new
    The constructor requires that the path to the LaTeX source is defined:

     $parser = LaTeX::Pod->new('/path/to/source');

    Returns the parser object.

METHODS
  convert
    There is one public *method* available, namely `convert()':

     $pod = $parser->convert;

    Returns the computed POD as a string.

SUPPORTED LANGUAGE SUBSET
    LaTeX currently supported:

    * abstracts
    * chapters
    * sections/subsections/subsubsections
    * description, enumerate and itemize lists
    * verbatim blocks (and indentation)
    * plain text
    * bold/italic/code font tags
    * umlauts
    * newlines
    * comments

IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
    The current implementation is based upon LaTeX::TOM (the framework being
    used for parsing the LaTeX source) and its clear distinction between
    various types of nodes. As an example, a `\chapter' command has a
    separate text associated with it as its content. `LaTeX::Pod' uses a
    "look-behind" mechanism for commands and their corresponding texts since
    they currently cannot be easily detected without such a mechanism.

    Thus `LaTeX::Pod' was designed with the intention to be
    *context-sensitive* aware. This is also being aimed at by eventually
    registering which type of node has been seen before the current one --
    useful when constructing logical paragraphs made out of two or more
    nodes. `LaTeX::Pod' then finally unregisters the type of node seen when
    it is no longer required. In addition, a dispatch queue is built
    internally which is executed after all nodes have been processed.

    Considering that the POD format has a limited subset of directives, the
    complexity of keeping track of node occurences appears to be bearable.
    Leading and trailing newlines will be removed from the node's text
    extracted where needed; furthermore, trailing spaces and tabs will also
    be purged from each line of POD resulting.

BUGS & CAVEATS
    It is highly recommended to ensure that the structure of the LaTeX input
    file follows the format specification strictly or the parser may not
    succeed.

SEE ALSO
    LaTeX::TOM

AUTHOR
    Steven Schubiger <schubiger@cpan.org>

LICENSE
    This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.

    See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/

