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1# HAT TRICK
2
3HAT TRICK is both a lightweight markup language inspired by gemtext and html,
4and this awk program to convert the markup language to gemtext, html, and
5gophermap markup. It uses a mixture of "block"-level and line-level sigils to
6extend the pure line-based markup of gemtext, while removing some of the more
7annoying points (to my mind) of writing pure html---i.e., repetitive tags and
8other boilerplate.
9
10## Syntax
11
12### Blocks
13
14In HAT TRICK, block of text separated by a blank line is a type of "block." The
15default block is a paragraph, or <p> tag in html. (In gemini and gophermaps, no
16extra tags are added.) Other blocks defined by the syntax are as follows:
17
18>>>
19# HEADING 1
20## HEADING 2
21### HEADING 3
22<<<
23
24Correspond to <hx> in html; passed through unmodified to gemtext and gophermaps.
25
26>>>
27> BLOCK QUOTE
28<<<
29
30Corresponds to <blockquote>; passed through unmodified to gemtext and
31gophermaps.
32
33>>>
34- UNORDERED LIST ITEM
351. ORDERED LIST ITEM
36<<<
37
38The first list item in a block automatically opens the necessary list tag in
39html. In gemtext, the "-" is converted to "*" (which signifies a list item);
40the hyphen is passed through in gophermaps, because I think it's better syntax
41personally.
42
43>>>
44--- SECTION BREAK
45<<<
46
47A visual indication to break sections. Corresponds to <hr> in html
48(TODO: consider html5 <section> tags --- this would take more logic.)
49
50HAT TRICK reflows blocks, which means that only the first line of a block
51needs to start with the sigils outlined above. However, each line of the block
52can begin with the sigil character for easier reading.
53
54### Lines
55
56Within blocks, there are certain other sigils that apply only to the line they
57prepend. They include the following:
58
59>>>
60=> LINK
61<<<
62
63Links are probably the most important element in any hypertext language---since
64without them, it's hardly hypertext. HAT TRICK borrows its link syntax from
65gemtext: the line starts with a "=>", the next field is the link's URL, and the
66rest of the line is the link's display text.
67
68>>>
69<TAG> HTML TAG
70<<<
71
72Lines beginning with an html tag are passed on to html verbatim. The closing
73tag is automatically appended to the end of the line, before any ending
74punctuation. I've found that 99 times out of 100, I don't want formatting to
75include the ending punctuation.
76
77A backslash (\) at the end of the tag line will prevent the tag from being
78ended, which is useful for tag-included punctuation as well as nesting tags.
79However, the tag is never closed, so you'll have to close it yourself on the
80next line. In addition, text that isn't in a tag is html-escaped, so for the
81markup to properly apply, you'll need to write something like this:
82
83>>>
84<b>She sells \
85<i>sea shells \
86</i>
87on the sea shore.\
88</b>
89<<<
90
91So while this markup is possible, it's discouraged through the awkwardness of
92the syntax.
93
94To translate these tags to meaningful markup in gemtext and gophermaps, a lookup
95table is used to correspond the tags to opening and closing characters around
96the line's text. This correspondance can be defined with the environment
97variable HT_TAGCHARS or HAT TRICK's second positional argument (See INVOCATION,
98below).
99
100>>>
101; COMMENT
102<<<
103
104Comments in HAT TRICK aren't passed on to the output text---even in html, which
105has a comment syntax. Instead, comments are passed, including the prepending
106semicolon, to standard error for further processing.
107
108### Verbatim blocks
109
110Finally, there is a special type of block for passing raw text through to the
111next phase of processing: the verbatim block.
112
113>>>
114 >>> [OUTPUTS]
115 VERBATIM TEXT
116 <<<
117<<<
118
119In html, the verbatim text is wrapped in <pre><code> tags; in gemtext, it's
120wrapped in gemtext's own verbatim text markers ```; and the text is unwrapped in
121gophermaps for a cleaner look.
122
123The OUTPUTS can be any output specifier HAT TRICK accepts; see INVOCATION below
124for details. If OUTPUTS is present, the verbatim text will only be passed
125through in the output formats listed; with no OUTPUTS listed it will output to
126all formats.
127
128## "Escaping" line- and block-types
129
130Each of the types listed above are anchored at the beginning of the line.
131Therefore, a simple "escaping" mechanism is available for free: simply prepend a
132space to any line you don't want processed as a line or block and you'll be
133gravy. Astute readers will notice I did just that above, to describe the syntax
134for verbatim fencing.
135
136## Invocation
137
138An invocation of HAT TRICK will look something like this:
139
140>>>
141./ht.awk [HT_FORMATS] [HT_TAGCHARS] < INPUT
142<<<
143
144It processes text from standard input and uses two positional parameters to
145customize its usage, in addition to environment variables. In each instance,
146the parameter will override the variable, and if neither are provided, HAT TRICK
147will choose a default.
148
149### HT_FORMATS (default: "html")
150
151The format(s) to export to. Can be one or more of "html", "gemini", and
152"gopher". As a convenience, a format can be prepended with a "-" (i.e.,
153"-html"), in which case every other format will be exported to. Multiple
154formats can also be specified by separating them with a comma. The special
155keyword "all" will export to all formats (this is the default).
156
157If HAT TRICK exports to one format, it will simply print out each line
158translated into that format. However, if more than one format is given,
159HAT TRICK prints each line multiple times, prepending the name of the format to
160the output. This allows for further processing to filter outputs according to
161output type with just one pass through the input.
162
163### HT_TAGCHARS (default: 'b:**,i://,code:``')
164
165The correspondance between html tag lines and other output formats. If
166HT_FORMAT is only html, this option has no real meaning.
167
168Each correspondance is of the (exploded) form
169
170>>>
171TAG : LEFT_CHAR RIGHT_CHAR
172<<<
173
174where TAG is the html tag, LEFT_CHAR is the character on the left of the
175enclosed text, and RIGHT_CHAR is the character on the right. Rules can be
176separated by commas to pass multiple ones to HAT TRICK.