README for the NICETEXT bundle

      Minimal Markup for Documenting, Text Filtering, ...

   (c) 2009-2012 Uwe Lueck http://contact-ednotes.sty.de.vu


                     == General Idea ==

The NICETEXT bundle supports "minimal" markup syntax for rather 
simple kinds of text. The code you type should show little more 
characters than are printed, though you get LaTeX quality. We 
try to do away with backslashes, technical terms, and curly 
braces (clumsy to type ... - "syntactic sugar"). 

Main focus is easy documentation of LaTeX packages. 
Preprocessing by Perl or so is replaced by TeX macros 
(reviving/generalizing the `docstrip' idea), including 
expandable, safe, correct string substitution and typographical 
enhancements of plain text for LaTeX input. 


                       == Packages ==

`wiki.sty' addresses general kinds of texts. `niceverb.sty' is 
made for documenting LaTeX packages. `niceverb.sty' especially 
offers [almost-]WYSIWIG for meta-variables (macro arguments) 
and for referring to commands (and their syntax) in footnotes, 
section titles etc. E.g., to get the syntax description

                 \foo[<opt-arg>]{<mand-arg>}
you just type 
                 \foo[<opt-arg>]{<mand-arg>}
!-)

`fifinddo.sty' provides basic setup for text filtering, 
especially string substitution. `makedoc.sty' extends it to 
provide a simple script language for transforming plain text 
package files into LaTeX input files [manual!?]. One LaTeX run 
can perform preprocessing and typesetting. 


                      == Comparisons ==

One source of inspiration is the markup syntax of editing 
Wikipedia pages. `wiki.sty' of the bundle offers something 
similar as a LaTeX front-end for italics, boldface, sectioning, 
and certain list-like environments. This is also similar to 
`easylatex', 

               http://www.ctan.org/pkg/easylatex

which is more powerful and uses Perl. NICETEXT, by contrast, 
consists just of LaTeX packages, working on any TeX 
installation [!? note restrictions in `fifinddo.pdf']. 
Cf. also preprocessor packages `txt2tex' and `txt2latex'. 

Regarding "self-documentation," there is a difference to 
current `\DocInput', similar ideas are in `gmdoc' and 
`lineno.sty', see `niceverb.pdf' and `makedoc.pdf'. Standard 
`doc.sty' and `contrib' extensions of it are rather avoided.

There are several *LaTeX macro* packages for processing text or 
databases or for editing TeX's input stream while typesetting 
-- see `fifinddo.pdf'. What seems to be new here is 
*expandable string substitution* and safe, correct detection of 
substrings -- discussed in `fifinddo.pdf'. 


                     == Documentation ==

`fifinddo.pdf' describes `fifinddo.sty', typeset from 
`fifinddo.tex'. `makedoc.pdf' describes `makedoc.sty', typeset 
from `makedoc.tex'. `mdoccheat.pdf' is a list of script 
commands, typeset from `mdocchea.tex'. `niceverb.pdf' describes 
`niceverb.sty', typeset from `niceverb.tex'. Typesetting them 
anew (for customizing printout) requires `makedoc.cfg', 
`mdoccorr.cfg', and the *.sty files.

`wikicheat.pdf' is a one-page manual of `wiki.sty'. The file 
`wiki.sty' contains additional documentation as plain text. 
Note that certain features must be activated by commands in the 
document environment.


                   == Templates/Dialogue ==

txt to TeX functionality through \MakeDocCorrectHook can be 
tried and applied with templates `fdtxttex.tpl' and 
`makedoc.tpl' and in a dialogue started by running 
`fdtxttex.tex'. Running `copyfile.tex', you get a dialogue 
for "compressing" blank lines or text encoding conversion.

`substr.tex' should typeset the version of Harald Harders' 
`substr.sty' next at your TeX installation. `arseneau.tex' 
should typeset documentation of a few packages by Donald 
Arseneau. MY results are `substr.pdf' and `arseneau.pdf'.


                        == License ==

Copying, distributing, modifying, using the files of the 
`nicetext' bundle are allowed under the terms of the 
LaTeX Project Public License, either version 1.3a or any later 
version, the latest version is at 

    http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt

There is NO WARRANTY, and you must CARE indeed with `fifinddo' 
and `makedoc', they will OVERWRITE existing files without 
warning (because their main purpose is updating). 

The bundle is AUTHOR-MAINTAINED in the sense of the LPPL.

Copyright (C) 2009-2012 Uwe Lueck, 

    http://www.contact-ednotes.sty.de.vu 

Please report bugs, problems, and suggestions via the previous 
web form. 


                  == Installing/Required ==

`makedoc.sty' requires the `moreverb' package from 

    CTAN:/macros/latex/contrib/moreverb

You find the latest public version of the NICETEXT bundle at

    http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/nicetext/

A TDS version `nictext.tds.zip' is available at

    http://mirror.ctan.org/install/macros/latex/contrib/


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               [This file 2012/11/27 Uwe Lueck]