faq1. what is zen markup language?
faq2. is z.m.l. generally available?
zen markup language (z.m.l.) is a form of light-markup.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_markup_language
in contrast to other light-markup systems, .zml was built explicitly for electronic-books. indeed, it was modeled on the e-texts from project gutenberg.
> http://www.gutenberg.org
z.m.l. also departs from other light-markup in the sense that it strives to be _invisible_, rather than just a simplified form of markup.
to attain this "invisibility", some of the markup is embedded into _whitespace_. the best example is the "markup" for chapter-headers. a chapter-header is indicated by the presence of 4 (or more) blank lines above the chapter-header, and (exactly) 2 lines below the chapter-header.
a 2-part chapter-header is indicated by (exactly) 1 blank line between the first part (e.g., "chapter 1") and the second part (e.g., "down the rabbit-hole").
if some type of structure can not or should not be "invisible", z.m.l. aims to make it as unobtrusive as it should be. perhaps the best example of this is _italics_, which are indicated by surrounding _underbars_, which are less obtrusive than the clumsy bracket-i-bracket and bracket-/i-bracket used by .html.
this aim for "invisibility" makes z.m.l. documents extremely easy to read, compared to documents that have been marked up in other systems, including other light-markup systems.
zen markup language (z.m.l.) is a form of light-markup.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_markup_language
in contrast to other light-markup systems, .zml was built explicitly for electronic-books. indeed, it was modeled on the e-texts from project gutenberg.
> http://www.gutenberg.org
z.m.l. also departs from other light-markup in the sense that it strives to be _invisible_, rather than just a simplified form of markup.
to attain this "invisibility", some of the markup is embedded into _whitespace_. the best example is the "markup" for chapter-headers. a chapter-header is indicated by the presence of 4 (or more) blank lines above the chapter-header, and (exactly) 2 lines below the chapter-header.
a 2-part chapter-header is indicated by (exactly) 1 blank line between the first part (e.g., "chapter 1") and the second part (e.g., "a day at the races").
if some type of structure can not or should not be "invisible", z.m.l. aims to make it as unobtrusive as it should be. perhaps the best example of this is _italics_, which are indicated by surrounding _underbars_, which are less obtrusive than the clumsy bracket-i-bracket and bracket-/i-bracket used by .html.
this aim for "invisibility" makes z.m.l. documents extremely easy to read, compared to documents that have been marked up in other systems, including other light-markup systems.