lightweight markup languages and applications

current choice: otl

look at:

pandoc

gema http://gema.sourceforge.net

questions to ask:

• how extensible/flexible is it?
  • can input syntax be customized?
  • can output syntax be customized?
• can HTML or other arbitrary markup be included in source document?

places which seem interested in this:

http://www.micans.org/zoem/ecosphere.html

http://www.plain-text.co.uk/

languages/applications

aft

• aft has a customizable rule file (aft-html.dat, aft-tex.dat, etc.) which allows you to customize the output - it does not allow you to customize the 'input syntax' (the syntax of the source file)
  • requires perl 5.6 or greater
  • use: aft NAME_OF_YOUR_FILE.aft

apt (almost plain text)

documentation:

http://maven.apache.org/doxia/references/apt-format.html

http://www.xmlmind.com/aptconvert.html

asciidoc

distros: (+) fedora, (+) debian

• http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc

notes:

• ascii doc is picky:

mysubheading

----

is not treated the same as

mysubheading

------------

bbcode

• 'bulletin board' markup

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode

bhl

• emacs mode that allows text to html conversion
• http://www.nongnu.org/bhl/
• customizable?
• no rpm

bobcat

http://bobcat.origo.ethz.ch/wiki/Bobcat_sample_document

creole

http://www.wikicreole.org/

* idea is to have a common wiki markup for all wikis

* looks like substantial effort has been invested in a sensical syntax

crossmark

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Crossmark

http://www.wikicreole.org/wiki/Crossmark

deplate

• converts deplate text (wiki-like markup) to html, etc.
• customizable but customization hardly seems straightforward
• http://deplate.sourceforge.net/

docfrac

• rtf, txt, html interconversion
• 3.1.1 i586 rpm segfaulted with simple text to html conversion

epydoc

• format for python docstrings

ettext

http://ettext.taint.org/

• like setext?

groff

• more complex syntax - text file not as readable
• not customizable - syntax written in stone

grutatxt

• text to html, troff, or man convertor
• no indication of customizability - syntax written in stone
• perl module or command-line
• http://www.triptico.com/software/grutatxt.html

lout

http://snark.ptc.spbu.ru/~uwe/lout/lout.html

• more complex syntax - text file not as readable
• not customizable - syntax written in stone

highlight

http://www.andre-simon.de/

• used for program source code conversion
• is parsing database customizable?

markdown

• widely used...
• see markdown.txt

mml

http://www.metamage.com/proj/mml.html

muse

http://mwolson.org/static/doc/muse/

• emacs lightweight markup

o7acode

http://o7acode.net/

otl

http://outl.sourceforge.net/or http://biology.fresno.edu/thomp/computing/programs/outl/

pandoc

http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/

distros: (+) debian

• reads: restructuredtext, markdown, ...
• converts to docbook, ...

use: pandoc [options] [input]

pandoc -o output.html input.txt

-f FORMAT

• specify input format

input formats: markdown (default), rst

-w FORMAT

• specify output format

output formats: html (default), man, latex, context, man, docbook, s5, rtf

perl text2html

• predates asciidoc

pod (plain old documentation)

http://perldoc.perl.org/perlpod.html

• not extremely readable

proletext

http://www.templetons.com/tech/proletext.html

regexxer

http://regexxer.sourceforge.net/

restructured text

http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html

distros: (+) fedora (python-docutils), (+) debian (python-docutils)

output formats: latex, others

• a revision of structuredtext and setext systems
• similar to asciidoc format
• components:

  rst2html

  rst2latex

  rst2newlatex

  rst2pseudoxml

  rst2s5

  rst2xml

• HTML isn't automagically passed through - instead
  is converted to

  <a>

http://rdoc.sourceforge.net/

scribe

• see also lisp 'scribble' system
• see also 'skribe' (below)

setext

http://www.valdemar.net/~erik/setext/

sisu

http://sisudoc.org

http://www.jus.uio.no/sisu/

skribe

http://www-sop.inria.fr/mimosa/fp/Skribe/

• lots of strengths but uses sexp-based structure to define a document...hardly the way to a highly readable file

spip

http://www.spip.net/en

stx2any

converts structured text (stx) into other formats

texy

http://texy.info/en

textile

http://hobix.com/textile/

• allows HTML in documents

txt2tags

http://txt2tags.sourceforge.net/

• not customizable - syntax written in stone

yodl

http://www.w3.org/Tools/YODL.html

xilize

http://xilize.sourceforge.net/

• similar to textile markup

zoem

used to generate HTML or troff from same source

source document must obey zoem syntax