README for the `bitelist' package
"Split list at list inside in TeX's Mouth"
        (C) Uwe Lueck 2012/03/28

`bitelist.sty' provides commands for "splitting" a token list at the first occurrence of a contained token list. I.e., for given token lists s, t return b and shortest a, such that t = a s b. As opposed to other packages providing similar features,

(i) the method uses TeX's mechanism of reading delimited macro 
    parameters;

(ii) the splitting macros work by pure expansion, without

assignments, provided the macro doing the search has been 
defined before processing (e.g., a file);

(iii) instead of using one macro for a "substring" test and another

one to replace the "substring"--which includes extracting 
corresponding prefix and suffix--, the *same* macro that 
detects the occurrence returns the split;

(iv) e-TeX is not required. (And LaTeX is not required.) This improves `fifinddo.sty' (v0.51).

An elaborated approach (additionally to a simpler one) is provided that does not loose outer braces of prefix/suffix.

"Substring" detection and "string" replacement are (implicitly) included with respect to certain representations of characters by tokens. Counting occurrences and "global" replacement could be achieved by applying the operation to earlier results, etc.--so this approach seems to be "fundamental" for a certain larger set of list analysis tasks.

The documentation aims to prove the correctness of the methods with mathematical rigour.

KEYWORDs: macro programming, text filtering, substrings

RELATEd PACKAGEs: datatool, stringstrings, ted, texapi, xstring

The package file `bitelist.sty' and the documentation files bitelist.pdf' and bitelist.tex' can be redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the LaTeX Project Public License; either version 1.3c of the License, or any later version, see

http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt

We did our best to help you, but there is NO WARRANTY.

The `bitelist' package is author-maintained in the sense of this license.

The latest public version of the package is available at

http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/bitelist/

A TDS version of the package is available as

http://mirror.ctan.org/install/macros/generic/bitelist.tds.zip

Please report bugs, problems, and suggestions via

http://www.contact-ednotes.sty.de.vu