Textual markup languages (was Re: What YAML engine do you use?)

[Paul Rubin]

Alan Kennedy <alanmk at hotmail.com> writes:
> However, I'm torn on whether to use ReST for textual content. On the
> one hand, it's looks pretty comprehensive and solidly implemented.

It seemed both unnecessary and horrendously overcomplicated when I
looked at it.  I'd stay away.

> So, I'm hoping that the learned folks here might be able to give me
> some pointers to a markup language that has the following
> characteristics

I'm a bit biased but I've been using Texinfo for a long time and have
been happy with it.  It's reasonably lightweight to implement, fairly
intuitive to use, and doesn't get in the way too much when you're
writing.  There are several implementations, none in Python at the
moment but that would be simple enough.  It does all the content
semantics you're asking (footnotes etc).  It doesn't have an explicit
object model, but is straightforward to convert into a number of
formats including high-quality printed docs (TeX); the original Info
hypertext browser that predates the web; and these days HTML.

> If I can't find such a markup language, then I might instead end up
> using a WYSIWYG editing component that gives the user a GUI and
> generates (x)html....  But I'd prefer a markup solution.

Yes, for heavy-duty users, markup is far superior to yet another
editor.  Everyone has their favorite editor and doesn't want to have
to switch to another one, hence the Emacs vs. Vi wars etc.