...one of the most highly
regarded and expertly designed C++ library projects in the
world.
— Herb Sutter and Andrei
Alexandrescu, C++
Coding Standards
['italic], [*bold], [_underline], [^teletype], [-strikethrough]
will generate:
italic, bold, underline, teletype
, strikethrough
Like all non-terminal phrase level elements, this can of course be nested:
[*['bold-italic]]
will generate:
bold-italic
When you want content that may or must be replaced by the user, use the syntax:
[~replacement]
This will generate:
replacement
["A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?]--Einstein
will generate:
“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?”--Einstein
Note the proper left and right quote marks. Also, while you can simply use ordinary quote marks like "quoted", our quotation, above, will generate correct DocBook quotations (e.g. <quote>quoted</quote>).
Like all phrase elements, quotations may be nested. Example:
["Here's the rule for bargains: ["Do other men, for they would do you.] That's the true business precept.]
will generate:
“Here's the rule for bargains: ‘Do other men, for they would do you.’ That's the true business precept.”
Simple markup for formatting text, common in many applications, is now supported:
/italic/, *bold*, _underline_, =teletype=
will generate:
italic, bold, underline, teletype
Unlike QuickBook's standard formatting scheme, the rules for simpler alternatives are much stricter [1] .
Table 1. More Formatting Samples
Markup |
Result |
---|---|
|
Bold |
|
Is bold |
|
* Not bold* *Not bold * * Not bold * |
|
This*Isn't*Bold (no bold) |
|
(Bold Inside) (parenthesis not bold) |
|
(Bold Outside) (parenthesis bold) |
|
3*4*5 = 60 (no bold) |
|
3 * 4 * 5 = 60 (no bold) |
|
3 4 5 = 60 (4 is bold) |
|
This is bold this is not but this is |
|
This is bold. |
|
B. (bold B) |
|
Bold-Italic |
|
side-by-side |
As mentioned, simple markups cannot go past a single block. The text from "have" to "full" in the following paragraph will be rendered as bold:
Baa baa black sheep, *have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full!* One for the master, one for the dame, And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.
Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full! One for the master, one for the dame, And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.
But in the following paragraph, bold is not applied:
Baa baa black sheep, *have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full! One for the master, one for the dame, And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.
Baa baa black sheep, *have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full! One for the master, one for the dame, And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.
Inlining code in paragraphs is quite common when writing C++ documentation. We provide a very simple markup for this. For example, this:
This text has inlined code `int main() { return 0; }` in it.
will generate:
This text has inlined code int main() { return 0; }
in it. The code will be syntax highlighted.
Note | |
---|---|
We simply enclose the code with the tick: |
Preformatted code simply starts with a space or a tab (See Code). However, such a simple syntax cannot be used as phrase elements in lists (See Ordered lists and Unordered lists), tables (See Tables), etc. Inline code (see above) can. The problem is, inline code does not allow formatting with newlines, spaces, and tabs. These are lost.
We provide a phrase level markup that is a mix between the two. By using the double-tick, instead of the single-tick, we are telling QuickBook to use preformatted blocks of code. Example:
`` #include <iostream> int main() { std::cout << "Hello, World!" << std::endl; return 0; } ``
will generate:
#include <iostream> int main() { std::cout << "Hello, World!" << std::endl; return 0; }
If a document contains more than one type of source code then the source mode may be changed dynamically as the document is processed. All QuickBook documents are initially in C++ mode by default, though an alternative initial value may be set in the Document section.
To change the source mode, use the [source-mode]
markup,
where source-mode
is one of the supported modes. For
example, this:
Python's [python] `import` is rather like C++'s [c++] `#include`. A C++ comment `// looks like this` whereas a Python comment [python] `# looks like this`.
will generate:
Python's import
is rather
like C++'s #include
.
A C++ comment // looks like this
whereas a Python comment #looks like this
.
Note | |
---|---|
The source mode strings are lowercase. |
[br]
Warning | |
---|---|
|
[#named_anchor]
A named anchor is a hook that can be referenced by a link elsewhere in
the document. You can then reference an anchor with [link named_anchor
Some link text]
.
See Anchor links,
Section and Heading.
[@http://www.boost.org this is [*boost's] website....]
will generate:
URL links where the link text is the link itself is common. Example:
see http://spirit.sourceforge.net/
so, when the text is absent in a link markup, the URL is assumed. Example:
see [@http://spirit.sourceforge.net/]
will generate:
You can link within a document using:
[link section_id.normalized_header_text The link text]
In addition, you can link internally to an XML refentry like:
[link xml.refentry The link text]
This gets converted into <link linkend="xml.refentry">The
link text</link>
.
Like URLs, the link text is optional. If this is not present, the link text will automatically be the refentry. Example:
[link xml.refentry]
This gets converted into <link linkend="xml.refentry">xml.refentry</link>
.
If you want to link to a function, class, member, enum, concept or header in the reference section, you can use:
[funcref fully::qualified::function_name The link text] [classref fully::qualified::class_name The link text] [memberref fully::qualified::member_name The link text] [enumref fully::qualified::enum_name The link text] [macroref MACRO_NAME The link text] [conceptref ConceptName The link text] [headerref path/to/header.hpp The link text]
Again, the link text is optional. If this is not present, the link text will automatically be the function, class, member, enum, macro, concept or header. Example:
[classref boost::bar::baz]
would have "boost::bar::baz" as the link text.
The escape mark-up is used when we don't want to do any processing.
''' escape (no processing/formatting) '''
Escaping allows us to pass XML markup to BoostBook or DocBook. For example:
''' <emphasis role="bold">This is direct XML markup</emphasis> '''
This is direct XML markup
The backslash may be used to escape a single punctuation character. The
punctuation immediately after the backslash is passed without any processing.
This is useful when we need to escape QuickBook punctuations such as [
and ]
.
For example, how do you escape the triple quote? Simple: \'\'\'
\n
has a special meaning. It is used to generate line breaks.
Warning | |
---|---|
|
The escaped space: \
also
has a special meaning. The escaped space is removed from the output.
[$image.jpg]
As of version 1.3, QuickBook supports footnotes. Just put the text of the
footnote in a [footnote]
block, and the text will be put at the
bottom of the current page. For example, this:
[footnote A sample footnote]
will generate this [2] .
Like C++ #ifdef
, you can generate
phrases depending on the presence of a macro. Example:
[? __to_be__ To be or not to be]
Here, the phrase "To be or not to be" will only be generated if the macro symbol __to_be__ has been previously defined. The phrase above will not do anything since we haven't defined __to_be__. Now, let's define the symbol:
[def __to_be__]
And try again:
To be or not to be
Yes! [3]
[1] Thanks to David Barrett, author of Qwiki, for sharing these samples and teaching me these obscure formatting rules. I wasn't sure at all if Spirit, being more or less a formal EBNF parser, can handle the context sensitivity and ambiguity.
[2] A sample footnote
[3] Conditional Generation makes quickbook turing complete.