NDMarkup

A markup format used by the parser, both internally and in NaturalDocs::Parser::ParsedTopic objects. Text formatted in NDMarkup will only have the tags documented below.

Summary

NDMarkup	A markup format used by the parser, both internally and in NaturalDocs::Parser::ParsedTopic objects.
Top-Level Tags	All content will be surrounded by one of the top-level tags.
List Item Tags	These tags will only appear within their respective lists.
Text Tags	These tags will only appear in paragraphs, headings, or description list descriptions.
Amp Chars	These are the only amp chars supported, and will appear everywhere.
Tabs	NDMarkup will not contain tab characters, only spaces.
General Tag Properties	Since the tags are generated, they will always have the following properties, which will make pattern matching much easier.

Top-Level Tags

All content will be surrounded by one of the top-level tags. These tags will not appear within each other.

<p></p>	Surrounds a paragraph. Paragraph breaks will replace double line breaks, and single line breaks will be removed completely.
<code></code>	Surrounds code or text diagrams that should appear literally in the output.
<h></h>	Surrounds a heading.
<ul></ul>	Surrounds a bulleted (unordered) list.
<dl></dl>	Surrounds a description list, which is what you are reading.

List Item Tags

These tags will only appear within their respective lists.

<li></li>	Surrounds a bulleted list item.
<de></de>	Surrounds a description list entry, which is the left side. It will always be followed by a description list description.
<ds></ds>	Surrounds a description list symbol. This is the same as a description list entry, except that the content is also a referenceable symbol. This occurs when inside a list topic. This tag will always be followed by a description list description.
<dd></dd>	Surrounds a description list description, which is the right side. It will always be preceded by a description list entry or symbol.

Text Tags

These tags will only appear in paragraphs, headings, or description list descriptions.

<b></b>	Bold
<i></i>	Italics
<u></u>	Underline
<link></link>	Surrounds a potential link to a symbol; potential because the target is not guaranteed to exist. This tag merely designates an attempted link. No other tags will appear between them.
<url></url>	Surrounds an external link. No other tags will appear between them.
<email></email>	Surrounds an email address. No other tags will appear between them.

Amp Chars

These are the only amp chars supported, and will appear everywhere. Every other character will appear as is.

&	The ampersand &.
"	The double quote “.
<	The less than sign <.
>	The greater than sign >.

Tabs

NDMarkup will not contain tab characters, only spaces. Any tab characters appearing in the source files will be expanded/replaced as necessary.

General Tag Properties

Since the tags are generated, they will always have the following properties, which will make pattern matching much easier.

Tags and amp chars will always be in all lowercase.
There will be no properties or extraneous whitespace within tags. They will only appear exactly as documented here.
All code is valid, meaning tags will always be closed, <li>s will only appear within <ul>s, etc.

So, for example, you can match symbol links with /<link>([^<]+)<\/link>/ and $1 will be the symbol. No surprises or gotchas. No need for sophisticated parsing routines.

Remember that for symbol definitions, the text should appear as is, but internally (such as for the anchor) they need to be passed through NaturalDocs::SymbolTable->Defines() so that the output file is just as tolerant as NaturalDocs::SymbolTable.