<! banner_id > The Yodl language provides a way to define character translation tables, to activate them, and to deactivate them. A character translation table defines how a character in the input will appear in the output. There are two main reasons for the need of character translation tables. First, a document language becomes much easier to use when you can type an asterisk as * instead of <code>$*$</code> or <code>\verb/*/</code> (these are sequences from the LaTeX document language). Hence, a mechanism that expands a * in the input to to <code>\verb/*/</code> on the output, saves the users a lot of typing. Second, forcing users to type weird sequences won't work if you're planning on converting the same Yodl document to a different output format. If the user types <code>\verb/*/</code> in the input to typeset an asterisk in the output, how should he or she arrive at a single * in the output in another output format? The solution is of course to define the translation for an input character like * given the output format. <!-- if this file ./Documentation/footer.html.in is present, it is included automatically by add-html-footer, and replaces the simple standard footer substitutions: * index, * package name * package name * ENV:WEBMASTER, * ENV:WEBMASTER --> <hr> Go <a href=>back</a> to index of Yodl. <p> Please send Yodl questions and comments to <a href="mailto:yodl@icce.rug.nl"> <em>yodl@icce.rug.nl</em></a>. <p> <!-- package Yodl Yodl --> Please send comments on these web pages to <a href="mailto:(address unknown)"><em>(address unknown)</em></a> <p> Copyright (c) 1997, 1998, 1999 Karel Kubat and Jan Nieuwenhuizen. <p> Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.<p> <hr><font size=-1> This page was built from Yodl-1.31.18 by <address><br>Stew Benedict <<a href=\"mailto:(address unknown)\">(address unknown)</a>>, Sat Jan 18 18:43:45 2003 EST.</address><p></font></BODY> </html>
