@ -154,3 +154,15 @@ Scribble files are recognized by the project server and can be compiled and prev
Files with the null extension are simply rendered as a copy of the file without the extension, so @filepath{index.html.p} becomes @filepath{index.html}.
Files with the null extension are simply rendered as a copy of the file without the extension, so @filepath{index.html.p} becomes @filepath{index.html}.
This can be useful you're managing your project with git. Most likely you'll want to ignore @filepath{*.html} and other file types that are frequently regenerated by the project server. But if you have isolated static files —for instance, a @filepath{index.html} that doesn't have source associated with it —they'll be ignored too. You can cure this problem by appending the null extension to these static files, so they'll be tracked in your source system without actually being source files.
This can be useful you're managing your project with git. Most likely you'll want to ignore @filepath{*.html} and other file types that are frequently regenerated by the project server. But if you have isolated static files —for instance, a @filepath{index.html} that doesn't have source associated with it —they'll be ignored too. You can cure this problem by appending the null extension to these static files, so they'll be tracked in your source system without actually being source files.
@section{Escaping output-file extensions within source-file names}
Pollen relies extensively on the convention of naming source files by adding a source extension to an output-file name. So the Pollen markup source for @filepath{index.html} would be @filepath{index.html.pm}.
This convention occasionally flummoxes other programs that assume a file can only have one extension. If you run into such a situation, you can @italic{escape} the output-file extension using the @racket[world:extension-escape-char], which defaults to @litchar{!}.
So instead of @filepath{index.html.pm}, your source-file name would be @filepath{index!html.pm}. When this source file is rendered, it will automatically be converted into @filepath{index.html} (meaning, the escaped extension will be converted into a normal file extension).
This alternative-naming scheme is automatically enabled in every project. You can also set the escape character on a per-project basis (see @racket[world:current-extension-escape-char]). Pollen will let you choose any character, but of course it would be unwise to pick one with special meaning in your filesystem (for instance, @litchar{/}).
