Ask HN: Markdown - tag and target blocks of content
I'm building a tool where a text editor and group chat plays the leading characters. I use Markdown in both instead of WYSIWYG.
My requirements for choice of markup language was:
- easy to read and write
- converts easily to clean HTML, ePub, PDF and other formats
- content blocks can be tagged with one or more tags
- content blocks can be targeted to one or more user/role
- allow simple data (key value pairs, lists)
TAGGING
With the risk of provoking a heart-attack on Markdown purists I present my first implementation of syntax for tagging:
#tag Header
Readability is an issue with more than one tag but I can live with only one tag per level of heading.
TAGGING EXAMPLE
The would allow us to write:
#chapter At the riviera
...
##scene On the beach
...
##scene The Ice Cream parlour
...
Which would help to render text differently depending on tagging - use tags as classes when parsed to HTML.
TARGETING
I use a simple and well known syntax at the start of a line:
@username ...
...
...
Is not very loud but allows a parser to understand that content on a certain level and below is targeted to a restricted audience.
An alternative way I've been pondering is expanding the {} syntax used for IDs in Kramdown and PHP Markdown Extra.
{@role,@role2}
{.tag,.tag2} or just {tag,tag2}
Targeting content will allow soft access control as well as being able to write Markdown in group chat and route parts of the text to different users/sub-groups
DATA IN MARKDOWN
I'm hoping to solve data with the
: data
Or maybe do some mixin with YAML?