On this page:
4.1 The book is a program
4.2 One language, multiple dialects
4.3 Development environment
4.4 A special data structure for HTML
4.5 Preprocessor source files
4.6 Templated source files
4.7 Utility source files
4.8 Pagetrees
4.9 Build & deploy
6.0.1.6

4 System overview

A summary of the key components & concepts of the Pollen publishing system and how they fit together. If you’ve completed the Quick tour, this will lend some context to what you saw. The next tutorials will make more sense if you read this first.

4.1 The book is a program

This is the core design principle of Pollen. Consistent with this principle, Pollen adopts the habits of software development in its functionality, workflow, and project management.

4.2 One language, multiple dialects

4.3 Development environment

The Pollen development environment has two main pieces: the DrRacket code editor, and the Pollen project server.

4.4 A special data structure for HTML

X-expression

Tags can be tags

Or tags can be functions

4.5 Preprocessor source files

Lower level of abstraction

Work directly

Text output

Any kind of file!

4.6 Templated source files

Higher level of abstraction

Work indirectly

X-expression output

Markdown

Markup

Templates

4.7 Utility source files

Scribble

Null

4.8 Pagetrees

Navigation

Hierarchy

Subsetting

Build script

4.9 Build & deploy

Pollen is not a production server

Render & clone