[pm-h] write to empty files

[rlharris at oplink.net]

On Sat, June 9, 2018 8:32 am, Chris Blanc wrote:
> I did something similar when I wrote an experimental hypertext book.
> It turned out that using Perl to parse a source text file with simple
> markup was the solution. Would something like that work for you?

I am attempting to write a chapter-by-chapter survey of the Scripture. The
survey is to be published in the form of articles in both HTML and PDF,
posted to the WWW for free, no-charge download.

For each of the roughly 1200 chapters in the Bible it is necessary to
bring together in one document [A] the Scripture text (Greek), [B] the
English translation of the Scripture text, and [C] an analysis of the
chapter (which is the part I write).

Parsing [A] and [B] is not an issue; it is easy to place each chapter
(Greek or the English translation) into a separate file.  And each chapter
analysis [C] is composed as a separate file.  Thus, I have three source
directories (Greek, English translation, analysis), each of which contains
roughly 1200 files.  A fourth directory contains the destination files, to
which LaTeX markup subsequently is added prior to publication.

The need is to create the set of approximately 1200 destination files.  To
create each destination file, the corresponding source file is copied from
[A], [B], and [C]:

  sourceA-0001.tex to destination-0001.tex
  sourceB-0001.tex to destination-0001.tex
  sourceC-0001.tex to destination-0001.tex

  sourceA-0002.tex to destination-0002.tex
  sourceB-0002.tex to destination-0002.tex
  sourceC-0002.tex to destination-0002.tex

  ...

  sourceA-1189.tex to destination-1189.tex
  sourceB-1189.tex to destination-1189.tex
  sourceC-1189.tex to destination-1189.tex

Automating the creation of destination files not only saves time in the
original compilation, but also facilitates revisions of the commentary, as
well as change from one English translation to another.