Thoughts on Structured Text

What do I really want from structured text for a CMS?

My wish list, in a rough order of importance:

• The ability to just type normal text and get paragraphs and probably line breaks (not that I use them often).

• Lists–I tend to organize my thoughts in lists – often nested. So ideally lists should be nestable. It would be great if list items could contain whole multiple paragraphs too.

• Some inline formatting, like emphasis.

• The ability to mix in HTML without having to do any extra escaping dance.

• Do What I Mean–have it just work, for most cases, without having to do too much second-guessing.

• The ability to quote blocks of code (pre).

• Extensible shortcuts–little sequences that it replaces with other sequences. Perhaps parameterized, like a google search for a word, for example.

• Be fairly easy to parse, and automatically change format, if I change my mind later on.

Given my predisposition towards nested lists, perhaps the best overall way to drive the formating from text would be indent-driven. In the same way that python derives block-structure from indenting, so could my structured text. It’s not exactly original, but it’s the way that seems to sit best with my requirements.

Update: 2004-03-15 – I’ve finally released the code for my PHP Structured Text.