Further work on `muse-project-alist' entry generation for blosxom.

[muse-el.git] / examples / QuickStart

#author John Wiegley
#title The Emacs Muse

Emacs Muse is an authoring and publishing environment for Emacs.  It
simplifies the process of writings documents and publishing them to
various output formats.

Muse consists of two main parts: an enhanced text-mode for authoring
documents and navigating within Muse projects, and a set of publishing
styles for generating different kinds of output.

* About this document

This document provides an example of Muse markup and also functions as
a quickstart for Muse.

To see what it looks like when published, type =make examples=.  You
will then get an Info document, an HTML document, and a PDF document
(provided you have an implementation of LaTeX installed with the
necessary fonts).

<contents>

* Getting Started

To use Muse, add the directory containing its files to your
=load-path= variable, in your =.emacs= file.  Then, load in the
authoring mode, and the styles you wish to publish to.  For example:

<example>
(add-to-list 'load-path "<path to Muse>")

(require 'muse-mode)     ; load authoring mode

(require 'muse-html)     ; load publishing styles I use
(require 'muse-latex)
(require 'muse-texinfo)
(require 'muse-docbook)
</example>

Once loaded, the command =M-x muse-publish-this-file= will publish an
input document to any available style.  If you enable =muse-mode=
within a buffer, by typing =M-x muse-mode=, this command will be bound
to =C-c C-t=.

* Creating a Muse project

Often you will want to publish all the files within a directory to a
particular set of output styles automatically.  To support, Muse
allows for the creations of "projects".  Here is a sample project, to
be defined in your =.emacs= file:

<example>
(require 'muse-project)

(setq muse-project-alist
      '(("website"                      ; my various writings
         ("~/Pages" :default "index")
         (:base "html" :path "~/public_html")
         (:base "pdf" :path "~/public_html/pdf"))))
</example>

The above defines a project named "website", whose files are located
in the directory =~/Pages=.  The default page to visit is =index=.
When this project is published, each page will be output as HTML to
the directory =~/public_html=, and as PDF to the directory
=~/public_html/pdf=.  Within any project page, you may create a link
to other pages using the syntax =[[pagename]]=.

* Markup rules

A Muse document uses special, contextual markup rules to determine how
to format the output result.  For example, if a paragraph is indented,
Muse assumes it should be quoted.

There are not too many markup rules, and all of them strive to be as
simple as possible so that you can focus on document creation, rather
than formatting.

** Paragraphs

Separate paragraphs in Muse must be separate by a blank line.

For example, the input text used for this section is:

<example>
Separate paragraphs in Muse must be separate by a blank line.

For example, the input text used for this section is:
</example>

** Centered paragraphs and quotations

A line that begins with six or more columns of whitespace (either tabs
or spaces) indicates a centered paragraph.

<comment>
                           This is centered
</comment>

  But if a line begins with whitespace, though less than six columns,
  it indicates a quoted paragraph.

** Headings

A heading becomes a chapter or section in printed output -- depending
on the style.  To indicate a heading, start a new paragraph with one
to three asterices, followed by a space and the heading title.  Then
begin another paragraph to enter the text for that section.

<example>
* First level

** Second level

*** Third level
</example>

** Horizontal rules

Four or more dashes indicate a horizontal rule.  Be sure to put blank
lines around it, or it will be considered part of the proceeding or
following paragraph!

----

The separator above was produced by typing:

<example>
----
</example>

** Emphasizing text

To emphasize text, surround it with certain specially recognized
characters:

<example>
*emphasis*
**strong emphasis**
***very strong emphasis***
_underlined_
=verbatim and monospace=
</example>

The above list renders as:

<verse>
*emphasis*
**strong emphasis**
***very strong emphasis***
_underlined_
=verbatim and monospace=
</verse>

** Adding footnotes

A footnote reference is simply a number in square
brackets<verbatim>[1]</verbatim>.[1] To define the footnote, place
this definition at the bottom of your file.  =footnote-mode= can be
used to greatly facilitate the creation of these kinds of footnotes.

<example>
 Footnotes:
 [1]  Footnotes are defined by the same number in brackets
      occurring at the beginning of a line.  Use footnote-mode's
      C-c ! a command, to very easily insert footnotes while
      typing.  Use C-x C-x to return to the point of insertion.
</example>

** Verse

Poetry requires that whitespace be preserved, but without resorting to
monospace.  To indicate this, use the following markup, reminiscent of
e-mail quotations:

<example>
> A line of Emacs verse;
>   forgive its being so terse.
</example>

The above is rendered as:

> A line of Emacs verse;
>   forgive its being so terse.

You can also use the =<literal><verse></literal>= tag, if you prefer:

<example>
<verse>
A line of Emacs verse;
  forgive its being so terse.
</verse>
</example>

** Literal paragraphs

The =<literal><example></literal>= tag is used for examples, where
whitespace should be preserved, the text rendered in monospace, and
any characters special to the output style escaped.

There is also the =<literal><literal></literal>= tag, which causes a
marked block to be entirely left alone.  This can be used for
inserting a hand-coded HTML blocks into HTML output, for example.

** Lists

Lists are given using special characters at the beginning of a line.
Whitespace must occur before bullets or numbered items, to distinguish
from the possibility of those characters occurring in a real sentence.

The supported kinds of lists are:

<example>
  - bullet item one
  - bullet item two

  1. Enumerated item one
  2. Enumerated item two

Term1 :: A definition one

Term2 :: A definition two
</example>

These are rendered as a bullet list:

  - bullet item one
  - bullet item two

An enumerated list:

  1. Enum item one
  2. Enum item two

And a definition list:

Term1 ::
  This is a first definition
  And it has two lines;
  no, make that three.

Term2 ::
  This is a second definition

<comment>
** Tables

Only very simple tables are supported.  The syntax is:

<example>
  Double bars  || Separate header fields

  Single bars   | Separate body fields
  Here are more | body fields

  Triple bars ||| Separate footer fields
</example>

The above is rendered as:

Double bars  || Separate header fields

Single bars   | Separate body fields
Here are more | body fields

Triple bars ||| Separate footer fields

<comment>
Double bars  || Separate header fields

Single bars   | Separate body fields
Here are more | body fields

Triple bars ||| Separate footer fields
</comment>

** Anchors and tagged links

=#example= If you begin a line with "#anchor" -- where "anchor" can be
any word that doesn't contain whitespace -- it defines an anchor at
that point into the document.  This point can be referenced using
"page#anchor" as the target in a Muse link (see below).

** URLs and E-mail addresses

A URL or e-mail address encountered in the input text is published as
a hyperlink if the output style supports it.  If it is an image URL,
it will be inlined if possible.  For example, the latest Muse source
can be downloaded at
http://www.newartisans.com/johnw/Emacs/muse.tar.gz and mail may be
sent to johnw@gnu.org

** Links

A hyperlink can reference a URL, or another page within a Muse
project.  In addition, descriptive text can be specified, which should
be displayed rather than the link text in output styles that supports
link descriptions.  The syntax is:

<example>
[[link target][link description]]
[[link target without description]]
</example>

Thus, Muse can be downloaded [[http://www.newartisans.com/johnw/Emacs/muse.tar.gz][here]], or at
[[http://www.newartisans.com/johnw/Emacs/muse.tar.gz]].

** Embedded lisp

Arbitrary kinds of markup can be achieved using the
=<literal><lisp></literal>= tag, which is the only Muse tag supported
in a style's header and footer text.  With the
=<literal><lisp></literal>= tag, you may generated whatever output
text you wish.  The inserted output will get marked up, if the
=<literal><lisp></literal>= tag appears within the main text of the
document.

<example>
<lisp>(concat "This form gets " "inserted")</lisp>
</example>

The above renders as: <lisp>(concat "This form gets " "inserted")</lisp>.

* Publishing styles

One of the principle features of Muse is the ability to publish a
simple input text to a variety of different output styles.  Muse also
makes it easy to create new styles, or derive from an existing style.

** Deriving from an existing style

To create a new style from an existing one, use =muse-derive-style=:

<example>
(muse-derive-style DERIVED-NAME BASE-NAME STYLE-PARAMETERS)
</example>

The derived name is a string defining the new style, such as
"my-html".  The base name must identify an existing style, such as
"html" -- if you have loaded =muse-html=.  The style parameters are
the same as those used to create a style, except that they override
whatever definitions exist in the base style.  However, some
definitions only partially override.  Those which support partial
overriding are:

:functions ::
  If a markup function is not found in the derived style's function
  list, the base style's function list will be queried.

:strings ::

:before ::

:before-end ::

:after ::

** Overriding an existing style

** Creating a new style

Footnotes:
[1]  This is a footnote.