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Commit | Line | Data |
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c12bc4de RD |
1 | Structured Text Manipulation |
2 | ||
3 | Parse a structured text string into a form that can be used with | |
4 | structured formats, like html. | |
5 | ||
6 | Structured text is text that uses indentation and simple | |
7 | symbology to indicate the structure of a document. | |
8 | ||
9 | A structured string consists of a sequence of paragraphs separated by | |
10 | one or more blank lines. Each paragraph has a level which is defined | |
11 | as the minimum indentation of the paragraph. A paragraph is a | |
12 | sub-paragraph of another paragraph if the other paragraph is the last | |
13 | preceding paragraph that has a lower level. | |
14 | ||
15 | Special symbology is used to indicate special constructs: | |
16 | ||
17 | - A single-line paragraph whose immediately succeeding paragraphs are lower | |
18 | level is treated as a header. | |
19 | ||
20 | - A paragraph that begins with a '-', '*', or 'o' is treated as an | |
21 | unordered list (bullet) element. | |
22 | ||
23 | - A paragraph that begins with a sequence of digits followed by a | |
24 | white-space character is treated as an ordered list element. | |
25 | ||
26 | - A paragraph that begins with a sequence of sequences, where each | |
27 | sequence is a sequence of digits or a sequence of letters followed | |
28 | by a period, is treated as an ordered list element. If the sequence is | |
29 | made up of lower-case i's and v's, a lower-case roman-numeral list is | |
30 | generated. If the sequence is made up of upper-case I's and V's, an | |
31 | upper-case roman-numeral list is generated. If the sequence is made | |
32 | up of other lower case letters (typically a,b,c) a lowercase alphabetic | |
33 | list is generated. If the sequence is made of of other upper case | |
34 | letters (typically, A,B,C) an uppercase alphabetic list is generated. | |
35 | If the sequence is something else (typically, 1,2,3), a arabic-numeral | |
36 | list is generated. | |
37 | ||
38 | - A paragraph with a first line that contains some text, followed by | |
39 | some white-space and '--' is treated as a descriptive list element. | |
40 | The leading text is treated as the element title. | |
41 | ||
42 | - Sub-paragraphs of a paragraph that ends in the word 'example' or the | |
43 | word 'examples', or '::' is treated as example code and is output as is. | |
44 | ||
45 | - Text enclosed single quotes (with white-space to the left of the | |
46 | first quote and whitespace or puctuation to the right of the second quote) | |
47 | is treated as example code. | |
48 | ||
49 | - Text surrounded by '*' characters (with white-space to the left of the | |
50 | first '*' and whitespace or puctuation to the right of the second '*') | |
51 | is *emphasized*. | |
52 | ||
53 | - Text surrounded by '**' characters (with white-space to the left of the | |
54 | first '**' and whitespace or puctuation to the right of the second '**') | |
55 | is made **strong**. | |
56 | ||
57 | - Text surrounded by '_' underscore characters (with whitespace to the left | |
58 | and whitespace or punctuation to the right) is made _underlined_. | |
59 | ||
60 | - Text encloded by double quotes followed by a colon, a URL, and concluded | |
61 | by punctuation plus white space, *or* just white space, is treated as a | |
62 | hyper link. For example: | |
63 | ||
64 | '"Zope":http://www.zope.org/ is ...' | |
65 | ||
66 | Is interpreted as '<a href="http://www.zope.org/">Zope</a> is ...' | |
67 | Note: This works for relative as well as absolute URLs. | |
68 | ||
69 | - Text enclosed by double quotes followed by a comma, one or more spaces, | |
70 | an absolute URL and concluded by punctuation plus white space, or just | |
71 | white space, is treated as a hyper link. For example: | |
72 | ||
73 | "mail me", mailto:amos@digicool.com. | |
74 | ||
75 | Is interpreted as '<a href="mailto:amos@digicool.com">mail me</a>.' | |
76 | ||
77 | - Text enclosed in brackets which consists only of letters, digits, | |
78 | underscores and dashes is treated as hyper links within the document. | |
79 | For example: | |
80 | ||
81 | As demonstrated by Smith [12] this technique is quite effective. | |
82 | ||
83 | Is interpreted as '... by Smith <a href="#12">[12]</a> this ...'. Together | |
84 | with the next rule this allows easy coding of references or end notes. | |
85 | ||
86 | - Text enclosed in brackets which is preceded by the start of a line, two | |
87 | periods and a space is treated as a named link. For example: | |
88 | ||
89 | .. [12] "Effective Techniques" Smith, Joe ... | |
90 | ||
91 | Is interpreted as '<a name="12">[12]</a> "Effective Techniques" ...'. | |
92 | Together with the previous rule this allows easy coding of references or | |
93 | end notes. | |
94 | ||
95 | ||
96 | - A paragraph that has blocks of text enclosed in '||' is treated as a | |
97 | table. The text blocks correspond to table cells and table rows are | |
98 | denoted by newlines. By default the cells are center aligned. A cell | |
99 | can span more than one column by preceding a block of text with an | |
100 | equivalent number of cell separators '||'. Newlines and '|' cannot | |
101 | be a part of the cell text. For example: | |
102 | ||
103 | |||| **Ingredients** || | |
104 | || *Name* || *Amount* || | |
105 | ||Spam||10|| | |
106 | ||Eggs||3|| | |
107 | ||
108 | is interpreted as:: | |
109 | ||
110 | <TABLE BORDER=1 CELLPADDING=2> | |
111 | <TR> | |
112 | <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=2> <strong>Ingredients</strong> </TD> | |
113 | </TR> | |
114 | <TR> | |
115 | <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1> <em>Name</em> </TD> | |
116 | <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1> <em>Amount</em> </TD> | |
117 | </TR> | |
118 | <TR> | |
119 | <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1>Spam</TD> | |
120 | <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1>10</TD> | |
121 | </TR> | |
122 | <TR> | |
123 | <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1>Eggs</TD> | |
124 | <TD ALIGN=CENTER COLSPAN=1>3</TD> | |
125 | </TR> | |
126 | </TABLE> | |
127 |