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Product Overview: Epytext
Epytext is a lightweight markup language primarily designed for formatting Python documentation strings. Here’s an overview of what Epytext does and its key features:
Purpose and Application
Epytext is intended to simplify the process of writing and formatting documentation for Python code. It converts Epytext-formatted strings into a structured, DOM-like representation, making it easier to generate well-organized and readable documentation.
Key Features and Functionality
Markup Structure
Epytext allows users to create structured documentation using various markup elements. These include:
- Paragraphs (`para`): Basic text blocks that can contain inline regions such as code, math, italic, bold, URI, links, and symbols.
- Sections: Headed sections that can contain paragraphs, lists, and other structural blocks.
- Lists: Unordered (`ulist`) and ordered (`olist`) lists that can be used to present information in a structured manner.
- Literal Blocks: Blocks of text that are displayed verbatim, often used for code snippets.
- Doctest Blocks: Blocks containing doctest examples.
- Field Lists: Used to define fields such as function parameters, return values, instance variables, and author information.
Parsing and DOM Representation
Epytext strings are parsed into a DOM-like tree structure composed of `Element` objects and strings. This parsing process can store any errors encountered during the parsing in a specified list, allowing for robust error handling.
Functions and Methods
Key functions include:
- `parse`: Converts an Epytext string into a DOM tree representation, storing any errors in the provided list.
- `parse_docstring`: Parses a docstring formatted with Epytext and returns a `ParsedDocstring` representation of its contents.
- `to_plaintext` and `to_debug`: Utilities to convert the DOM tree back into plain text or an annotated Epytext string for debugging purposes.
Inline Regions
Within paragraphs, Epytext supports various inline regions such as:
- Code: For code snippets.
- Math: For mathematical expressions.
- Italic and Bold: For emphasis.
- URI and Link: For hyperlinks.
- Symbols: Special symbols supported by epydoc.
Custom Fields
Epytext allows the definition of custom fields using the `__extra_epydoc_fields__` variable. This feature enables users to extend the standard set of fields to include additional information specific to their documentation needs.
Conclusion
Epytext is a powerful and flexible tool for creating and managing Python documentation. Its lightweight markup, robust parsing capabilities, and support for custom fields make it an invaluable resource for developers seeking to maintain high-quality, well-structured documentation.
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