# atx, the true structured text format

I'm sick of bringing my writing down to the level of the computer. Why should I have to cover everything in annoying pointy brackets just so it knows what I mean? We've had well-standardized conventions for computer processed text for the past decade; it's time for a text format that acknowledges them, instead of inventing its own way of doing things.

I've tried to create such a format: atx. The rest of this document describes the conventions of atx in detail, but you should be able to just write as you do in email and have a mostly valid atx document.

_Note that atx is still in flux and is subject to change. However, I don't expect all that much to change and I'll note things that I'm not sure about in the document._

## Body Text

Use the TeX encoding  of formatting characters::

Double quoting: ``Hello, World!''
Single quoting: `Hello, World!'
An en-dash: 1920---1942
An em-dash: Some thought -- sidenote -- same thought.

Double quoting: ``Hello, World!''
Single quoting: `Hello, World!'
An en-dash: 1920---1942
An em-dash: Some thought -- sidenote -- same thought.

(Yes, the last two are reversed from their positions in TeX. I think this is fair because a en-dash is far less common than an em-dash in my experience, but I'd appreciate feedback.)

Use |format=flowed| wrapping: if the line ends in a space, then the next line is treated as a continuation of the previous one. Otherwise there's a line break.

Use the standard email conventions for strong and emphasis, and a new one for computer words (since I don't think there exists a convention)::

Emphasis (italics): I _love_ candy!
Strong (bold): *This is a draft!*
Code (monospaced): Use the |frobnitz| module.

Emphasis (italics): I _love_ candy!
Strong (bold): *This is a draft!*
Code (monospaced): Use the |frobnitz| module.

Paragraphs are separated by a blank line. Lines starting with |$| or folowing a paragraph ending in :: are  preformatted.

## Headings

Headings start with 1 or more # characters. The level 1 heading (the title) starts with #, section headings with ##, subheads with ###, and so on.

## Lists

Ordered lists start with numbers::

1. Jack
2. Jill
3. Bill

1. Jack
2. Jill
3. Bill

Unordered lists start with *::

* Eat
* Drink
* Sleep

* Eat
* Drink
* Sleep

## Block Quotes

Block quotes start with 3 or more spaces::

    Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this 
    continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the 
    proposition that all men are created equal.

    Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this 
    continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
    proposition that all men are created equal.

## Links

I need to figure out some way of doing links. (A similar method could be used to do any other type of phrase-describing not included.) I was thinking something like::

[John] went to [the market].
 
[John] http://www.john.org/
[the market] http://themarket.gov/

<a href="http://www.john.org/">John</a> went to <a href="http://themarket.gov/">the market</a>.

What do you think?

## That's it!

Is there anything else I should include? Let me know.