.TH README.NOW 5 2020-05-10 yam655.com "Misc. Tilde Commands"
.SH NAME
readme.now \- Format of readme.now README files.
.SH FILE FORMAT
.IP "Normal text:"
Normal text does not wrap. This isn\[aq]t Markdown, and no paragraphs
are parsed. In Gophermaps and Gemini index files, text does not wrap,
and it is easy enough to make that work for HTML, too.
.IP
HTML does not have files that are completely preformatted. That\[aq]s
all, really.
.IP "Preformatted lines:"
Lines that start with \[aq].\[aq] (Period) indicate a preformatted line, sequential
preformatted lines get bundled up in to the same preformatted block.
.IP "Indented lines:"
Indented lines are displayed in HTML in a matter that should work
for ancient systems that don\[aq]t support advanced CSS. This will work
even though much of the line will not be preformatted.
.IP
The secret: We convert leading spaces to NBSP in the HTML.
.IP "Linking to files:"
Only HTML allows links at arbitrary locations within a file, as
both Gemini and Gopher require links specified at the beginning
of the line. To simplify things, filenames need to be at the
start of the line to be heated in to links properly.
.IP
Heating of links should work when indented, and when they're
alone on the line. It should also work when it is has an
indications that it is an unordered list (no numbers), and
you may quote it however you like.
.IP
Files can\[aq]t start or end with a period or other punctuation.
Spaces, tabs, and other unusual characters do not work reliably will
cause the file to be quietly ignored.
.IP "HTML Title:"
For the HTML title, we leverage the same technique that web editors
use: we pull in a portion of the first text from the file.
.IP
We can safely drop all preformatted blocks in this consideration,
as well as any lines without alphanumeric words.
.IP
We don\[aq]t use the full line, but it works best if the first line
is either the name of the folder or a short description.