Joel de Guzman Eric Niebler 2002 2004 Joel de Guzman, Eric Niebler Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt) WikiWiki style documentation tool Quickbook 1.3
Introduction
Why program by hand in five days what you can spend five years of your life automating? -- Terrence Parr, author ANTLR/PCCTS
Well, QuickBook started as a weekend hack. It was originally intended to be a sample application using Spirit. What is it? What you are viewing now, this documentation, is autogenerated by QuickBook. These files were generated from one master:
quickbook.qbk
Originally named QuickDoc, this funky tool that never dies evolved into a funkier tool thanks to Eric Niebler who resurrected the project making it generate BoostBook instead of HTML. The BoostBook documentation format is an extension of DocBook, an SGML or XML based format for describing documentation. QuickBook is a WikiWiki style documentation tool geared towards C++ documentation using simple rules and markup for simple formatting tasks. QuickBook extends the WikiWiki concept. Like the WikiWiki, QuickBook documents are simple text files. A single QuickBook document can generate a fully linked set of nice HTML and PostScript/PDF documents complete with images and syntax- colorized source code. Features include: generate BoostBook xml, to generate HTML, PostScript and PDF simple markup to link to Doxygen-generated entities macro system for simple text substitution simple markup for italics, bold, preformatted, blurbs, code samples, tables, URLs, anchors, images, etc. automatic syntax coloring of code samples CSS support
Change Log Version 1.3 Quickbook file inclusion [include]. Better xml output (pretty layout). Check out the generated XML. Regression testing facility: to make sure your document will always be compatible (full backward compatibility) regardless of changes to QuickBook. Code cleanup and refactoring. Allow phrase markup in the doc-info. Preformatted code blocks via ``code`` (double ticks) allows code in tables and lists, for example. Quickbook versioning; allows full backward compatibility. You have to add [quickbook 1.3] to the doc-info header to enable the new features. Without this, QuickBook will assume that the document is a pre-1.3 document. Better (intuitive) paragraph termination. Some markups may terminate a paragraph. Example: [section x] blah... [endsect] Fully qualified section and headers. Subsection names are concatenated to the ID to avoid clashing. Example: doc_name.sect_name.sub_sect_name.sub_sub_sect_name Better   and whitespace handling in code snippets. [xinclude] fixes up the relative path to the target XML file when input_directory is not the same as the output_directory. Allow untitled tables. Allow phrase markups in section titles. Allow escaping back to QuickBook from code, code blocks and inline code. Footnotes, with the [footnote This is the footnote] syntax. Post-processor bug fix for escaped XML code that it does not recognize. Replaceable, with the [~replacement] syntax.
Syntax Summary A QuickBook document is composed of one or more blocks. An example of a block is the paragraph or a C++ code snippet. Some blocks have special mark-ups. Blocks, except code snippets which have their own grammar (C++ or Python), are composed of one or more phrases. A phrase can be a simple contiguous run of characters. Phrases can have special mark-ups. Marked up phrases can recursively contain other phrases, but cannot contain blocks. A terminal is a self contained block-level or phrase-level element that does not nest anything. Blocks, in general, are delimited by two end-of-lines (the block terminator). Phrases in each block cannot contain a block terminator. This way, syntax errors such as un-matched closing brackets do not go haywire and corrupt anything past a single block.
Comments Can be placed anywhere. [/ comment (no output generated) ]
Phrase Level Elements
Font Styles ['italic], [*bold], [_underline], [^teletype], [-strikethrough] will generate: italic, bold, underline, teletype, strikethrough Like all non-terminal phrase level elements, this can of course be nested: [*['bold-italic]] will generate: bold-italic
Replaceable When you want content that may or must be replaced by the user, use the syntax: [~replacement] This will generate: replacement
Quotations ["A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?]--Einstein will generate: A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?--Einstein Note the proper left and right quote marks. Also, while you can simply use ordinary quote marks like "quoted", our quotation, above, will generate correct DocBook quotations (e.g. <quote>quoted</quote>). Like all phrase elements, quotations may be nested. Example: ["Here's the rule for bargains: ["Do other men, for they would do you.] That's the true business precept.] will generate: Here's the rule for bargains: Do other men, for they would do you. That's the true business precept.
Simple formatting Simple markup for formatting text, common in many applications, is now supported: /italic/, *bold*, _underline_, =teletype= will generate: italic, bold, underline, teletype Unlike QuickBook's standard formatting scheme, the rules for simpler alternatives are much stricter. Simple markups cannot nest. You can combine a simple markup with a nestable markup. A non-space character must follow the leading markup A non-space character must precede the trailing markup A space or a punctuation must follow the trailing markup If the matching markup cannot be found within a line, the formatting will not be applied. This is to ensure that un-matched formatting markups, which can be a common mistake, does not corrupt anything past a single line. We do not want the rest of the document to be rendered bold just because we forgot a trailing '*'. A line starting with the star will be interpreted as an unordered list. See Unordered lists. More Formatting Samples MarkupResult *Bold* Bold *Is bold* Is bold * Not bold* *Not bold * * Not bold * * Not bold* *Not bold * * Not bold * This*Isn't*Bold (no bold) This*Isn't*Bold (no bold) (*Bold Inside*) (parenthesis not bold) (Bold Inside) (parenthesis not bold) *(Bold Outside)* (parenthesis bold) (Bold Outside) (parenthesis bold) 3*4*5 = 60 (no bold) 3*4*5 = 60 (no bold) 3 * 4 * 5 = 60 (no bold) 3 * 4 * 5 = 60 (no bold) 3 *4* 5 = 60 (4 is bold) 3 4 5 = 60 (4 is bold) *This is bold* this is not *but this is* This is bold this is not but this is *This is bold*. This is bold. *B*. (bold B) B. (bold B) ['*Bold-Italic*] Bold-Italic note Thanks to David Barrett, author of Qwiki, for sharing these samples and teaching me these obscure formatting rules. I wasn't sure at all if Spirit, being more or less a formal EBNF parser, can handle the context sensitivity and ambiguity.
Inline code Inlining code in paragraphs is quite common when writing C++ documentation. We provide a very simple markup for this. For example, this: This text has inlined code `int main() { return 0; }` in it. will generate: This text has inlined code int main() { return 0; } in it. The code will be syntax highlighted. note Note that we simply enclose the code with the tick: "`" , not the single quote: "'". Note too that `some code` is preferred over [^some code] .
Code blocks Preformatted code simply starts with a space or a tab (See Code). However, such a simple syntax cannot be used as phrase elements in lists (See Ordered lists and Unordered lists), tables (See Tables), etc. Inline code (see above) can. The problem is, inline code does not allow formatting with newlines, spaces, and tabs. These are lost. We provide a phrase level markup that is a mix between the two. By using the double-tick, instead of the single-tick, we are telling QuickBook to use preformatted blocks of code. Example: `` #include <iostream> int main() { std::cout << "Hello, World!" << std::endl; return 0; } `` will generate: #include <iostream> int main() { std::cout << "Hello, World!" << std::endl; return 0; }
Source Mode If a document contains more than one type of source code then the source mode may be changed dynamically as the document is processed. All QuickBook documents are initially in C++ mode by default, though an alternative initial value may be set in the Document section. To change the source mode, use the [source-mode] markup, where source-mode is one of the supported modes. For example, this: Python's [python] `import` is rather like C++'s [c++] `#include`. A C++ comment `// looks like this` whereas a Python comment [python] `# looks like this`. will generate: Python's import is rather like C++'s #include. A C++ comment // looks like this whereas a Python comment #looks like this. Supported Source Modes ModeSource Mode Markup C++[c++] Python[python] note The source mode strings are lowercase.
line-break [br] note Note that \n is now preferred over [br].
Anchors [#named_anchor] A named anchor is a hook that can be referenced by a link elsewhere in the document. You can then reference an anchor with [link named_anchor Some link text] . See Anchor links, Section and Heading.
Escape The escape mark-up is used when we don't want to do any processing. ''' escape (no processing/formatting) ''' Escaping allows us to pass XML markup to BoostBook or DocBook. For example: ''' <emphasis role="bold">This is direct XML markup</emphasis> ''' This is direct XML markup alert Be careful when using the escape. The text must conform to BoostBook/DocBook syntax.
Single char escape The backslash may be used to escape a single punctuation character. The punctuation immediately after the backslash is passed without any processing. This is useful when we need to escape QuickBook punctuations such as [ and ]. For example, how do you escape the triple quote? Simple: \'\'\' \n has a special meaning. It is used to generate line breaks. Note that \n is now preferred over [br].
Images [$image.jpg]
Footnotes As of version 1.3, QuickBook supports footnotes. Just put the text of the footnote in a [footnote] block, and the text will be put at the bottom of the current page. For example, this: [footnote A sample footnote] will generate this A sample footnote .
Block Level Elements
Document Every document must begin with a Document Info section, which should look like this: [document-type The Document Title [quickbook 1.3] [version 1.0] [id the_document_name] [dirname the_document_dir] [copyright 2000 2002 2003 Joe Blow, Jane Doe] [purpose The document's reason for being] [category The document's category] [authors [Blow, Joe], [Doe, Jane]] [license The document's license] [source-mode source-type] ] Where document-type is one of: book article library chapter part appendix preface qandadiv qandaset reference set quickbook 1.3 declares the version of quickbook the document is written for. In its absence, version 1.1 is assumed. version, id, dirname, copyright, purpose, category, authors, license, last-revision and source-mode are optional information. source-type is a lowercase string setting the initial Source Mode. If the source-mode field is omitted, a default value of c++ will be used.
Section Starting a new section is accomplished with: [section:id The Section Title] where id is optional. id will be the filename of the generated section. If it is not present, "The Section Title" will be normalized and become the id. Valid characters are a-Z, A-Z, 0-9 and _. All non-valid characters are converted to underscore and all upper-case are converted to lower case. Thus: "The Section Title" will be normalized to "the_section_title". End a section with: [endsect] Sections can nest, and that results in a hierarchy in the table of contents.
xinclude You can include another XML file with: [xinclude file.xml] This is useful when file.xml has been generated by Doxygen and contains your reference section.
Paragraphs Paragraphs start left-flushed and are terminated by two or more newlines. No markup is needed for paragraphs. QuickBook automatically detects paragraphs from the context. Block markups [section, endsect, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, blurb, (block-quote) ':', pre, def, table and include ] may also terminate a paragraph.
Lists
Ordered lists # One # Two # Three will generate: One Two Three
List Hierarchies List hierarchies are supported. Example: # One # Two # Three # Three.a # Three.b # Three.c # Four # Four.a # Four.a.i # Four.a.ii # Five will generate: One Two Three Three.a Three.b Three.c Fourth Four.a Four.a.i Four.a.ii Five
Long List Lines Long lines will be wrapped appropriately. Example: # A short item. # A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. # A short item. A short item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A very long item. A short item.
Unordered lists * First * Second * Third will generate: First Second Third
Mixed lists Mixed lists (ordered and unordered) are supported. Example: # One # Two # Three * Three.a * Three.b * Three.c # Four will generate: One Two Three Three.a Three.b Three.c Four And... # 1 * 1.a # 1.a.1 # 1.a.2 * 1.b # 2 * 2.a * 2.b # 2.b.1 # 2.b.2 * 2.b.2.a * 2.b.2.b will generate: 1 1.a 1.a.1 1.a.2 1.b 2 2.a 2.b 2.b.1 2.b.2 2.b.2.a 2.b.2.b
Code Preformatted code starts with a space or a tab. The code will be syntax highlighted according to the current Source Mode: #include <iostream> int main() { // Sample code std::cout << "Hello, World\n"; return 0; } import cgi def cookForHtml(text): '''"Cooks" the input text for HTML.''' return cgi.escape(text) Macros that are already defined are expanded in source code. Example: [def __syntax_highlight__ [@quickbook/highlight.html syntax_highlight]] [def __quickbook__ [@index.html quickbook]] using __quickbook__::__syntax_highlight__; Generates: using quickbook::syntax_highlight;
Escaping Back To QuickBook Inside code, code blocks and inline code, QuickBook does not allow any markup to avoid conflicts with the target syntax (e.g. c++). In case you need to switch back to QuickBook markup inside code, you can do so using a language specific escape-back delimiter. In C++ and Python, the delimiter is the double tick (back-quote): "``" and "``". Example: void ``[@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo#Foo.2C_Bar_and_Baz foo]``() { } Will generate: void foo() { } When escaping from code to QuickBook, only phrase level markups are allowed. Block level markups like lists, tables etc. are not allowed.
Preformatted Sometimes, you don't want some preformatted text to be parsed as C++. In such cases, use the [pre ... ] markup block. [pre Some *preformatted* text Some *preformatted* text Some *preformatted* text Some *preformatted* text Some *preformatted* text Some *preformatted* text ] Spaces, tabs and newlines are rendered as-is. Unlike all quickbook block level markup, pre (and Code) are the only ones that allow multiple newlines. The markup above will generate: Some preformatted text Some preformatted text Some preformatted text Some preformatted text Some preformatted text Some preformatted text Notice that unlike Code, phrase markup such as font style is still permitted inside pre blocks.
Blockquote [:sometext...]
Indents the paragraph. This applies to one paragraph only.
Admonitions [note This is a note] [tip This is a tip] [important This is important] [caution This is a caution] [warning This is a warning] generates DocBook admonitions: This is a note This is a tip This is important This is a caution This is a warning These are the only admonitions supported by DocBook. So, for example [information This is some information] is unlikely to produce the desired effect.
Headings [h1 Heading 1] [h2 Heading 2] [h3 Heading 3] [h4 Heading 4] [h5 Heading 5] [h6 Heading 6] Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Heading 4 Heading 5 Heading 6 Headings 1-3 [h1 h2 and h3] will automatically have anchors with normalized names with name="section_id.normalized_header_text" (i.e. valid characters are a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and _. All non-valid characters are converted to underscore and all upper-case are converted to lower-case. For example: Heading 1 in section Section 2 will be normalized to section_2.heading_1). You can use: [link section_id.normalized_header_text The link text] to link to them. See Anchor links and Section for more info.
Macros [def macro_identifier some text] When a macro is defined, the identifier replaces the text anywhere in the file, in paragraphs, in markups, etc. macro_identifier is a string of non-white space characters except ']' while the replacement text can be any phrase (even marked up). Example: [def sf_logo [$http://sourceforge.net/sflogo.php?group_id=28447&type=1]] sf_logo Now everywhere the sf_logo is placed, the picture will be inlined. sflogo tip It's a good idea to use macro identifiers that are distinguishable. For instance, in this document, macro identifiers have two leading and trailing underscores (e.g. __spirit__ ). The reason is to avoid unwanted macro replacement. Links (URLS) and images are good candidates for macros. 1) They tend to change a lot. It is a good idea to place all links and images in one place near the top to make it easy to make changes. 2) The syntax is not pretty. It's easier to read and write, e.g. __spirit__ than [@http://spirit.sourceforge.net Spirit] . Some more examples: [def :-) [$theme/smiley.png]] [def __spirit__ [@http://spirit.sourceforge.net Spirit]] (See Images and Links) Invoking these macros: Hi __spirit__ :-) will generate this: Hi Spirit  smiley
Predefined Macros Quickbook has some predefined macros that you can already use. Predefined Macros MacroMeaningExample __DATE__ Today's date2000-Dec-20 __TIME__ The current time12:00:00 PM __FILENAME__ Quickbook source filenameNO_FILENAME_MACRO_GENERATED_IN_DEBUG_MODE
Blurbs [blurb :-) [*An eye catching advertisement or note...]\n\n __spirit__ is an object-oriented recursive-descent parser generator framework implemented using template meta-programming techniques. Expression templates allow us to approximate the syntax of Extended Backus-Normal Form (EBNF) completely in C++. ] will generate this: smiley  An eye catching advertisement or note... Spirit is an object-oriented recursive-descent parser generator framework implemented using template meta-programming techniques. Expression templates allow us to approximate the syntax of Extended Backus-Normal Form (EBNF) completely in C++.
Tables [table A Simple Table [[Heading 1] [Heading 2] [Heading 3]] [[R0-C0] [R0-C1] [R0-C2]] [[R1-C0] [R1-C1] [R1-C2]] [[R2-C0] [R2-C1] [R2-C2]] ] will generate: A Simple Table Heading 1Heading 2Heading 3 R0-C0R0-C1R0-C2 R2-C0R2-C1R2-C2 R3-C0R3-C1R3-C2 The table title is optional. The first row of the table is automatically treated as the table header; that is, it is wrapped in <thead>...</thead> XML tags. Note that unlike the original QuickDoc, the columns are nested in [ cells... ]. The syntax is free-format and allows big cells to be formatted nicely. Example: [table Table with fat cells [[Heading 1] [Heading 2]] [ [Row 0, Col 0: a small cell] [ Row 0, Col 1: A very big cell...A very big cell...A very big cell... A very big cell...A very big cell...A very big cell... A very big cell...A very big cell...A very big cell... ] ] [ [Row 1, Col 0: a small cell] [Row 1, Col 1: a small cell] ] ] and thus: Table with fat cells Heading 1Heading 2 Row 0, Col 0: a small cell Row 0, Col 1: A very big cell...A very big cell...A very big cell... A very big cell...A very big cell...A very big cell... A very big cell...A very big cell...A very big cell... Row 1, Col 0: a small cellRow 1, Col 1: a small cell Here's how to have preformatted blocks of code in a table cell: [table Table with code [[Comment] [Code]] [ [My first program] [`` #include <iostream> int main() { std::cout << "Hello, World!" << std::endl; return 0; } ``] ] ] Table with code CommentCode My first program #include <iostream> int main() { std::cout << "Hello, World!" << std::endl; return 0; }
Variable Lists [variablelist A Variable List [[term 1] [The definition of term 1]] [[term 2] [The definition of term 2]] [[term 3] [The definition of term 3]] ] will generate: A Variable List term 1 The definition of term 1 term 2 The definition of term 2 term 3 The definition of term 3 The rules for variable lists are the same as for tables, except that only 2 "columns" are allowed. The first column contains the terms, and the second column contains the definitions. Those familiar with HTML will recognize this as a "definition list".
Include You can include one QuickBook file from another. The syntax is simply: [include someother.qbk] The included file will be processed as if it had be cut and pasted into the current document, with the following exceptions: The __FILENAME__ predefined macro will reflect the name of the file currently being processed. Any macros defined in the included file are scoped to that file. As the number of included QuickBook files grows, so too does the likelihood of two sections having the same name. Since QuickBook generates an anchor for each section based on the section name, it is possible to end up with two identically named anchors, leading to link ambiguities. To resolve these ambiguities, the [include] directive lets you specify a document id to use for the included file. You can use it like this: [include:someid someother.qbk] When using this form, all auto-generated anchors will use "someid" as a unique prefix. So for instance, if there is a section in someother.qbk named "Intro", the named anchor for that section will be "someid.intro", and you can link to it with [link someid.intro The Intro].
Quick Reference Syntax Compendium To do this...Use this...See this... comment [/ some comment] Comments italics ['italics] or /italics/ Font Styles and formatting Simple formatting bold [*bold] or *bold* Font Styles and formatting Simple formatting underline [_underline] or _underline_ Font Styles and formatting Simple formatting teletype [^teletype] or =teletype= Font Styles and formatting Simple formatting strikethrough [-strikethrough] Font Styles and formatting Simple formatting replaceable [~replaceable] Replaceble source mode[c++] or [python]Source Mode inline code `int main();` Inline code code block ``int main();`` Code code escape ``from c++ to QuickBook`` Escaping Back To QuickBook line break [br] or \n line-break anchor [#anchor] Anchors link [@http://www.boost.org Boost] Links anchor link [link section.anchor Link text] Anchor links refentry link [link xml.refentry Link text] refentry links function link [funcref fully::qualified::function_name Link text] function, class, member, enum or header links class link [classref fully::qualified::class_name Link text] function, class, member, enum or header links member link [memberref fully::qualified::member_name Link text] function, class, member, enum or header links enum link [enumref fully::qualified::enum_name Link text] function, class, member, enum or header links header link [headerref path/to/header.hpp Link text] function, class, member, enum or header links escape'''escaped text (no processing/formatting)'''Escape single char escape\cSingle char escape images [$image.jpg] Images begin section [section The Section Title] Section end section [endsect] Section paragraphNo markup. Paragraphs start left-flushed and are terminated by two or more newlines.Paragraphs ordered list# one # two # three Ordered lists unordered list* one * two * three Unordered lists codeNo markup. Preformatted code starts with a space or a tab.Code preformatted [pre preformatted] Preformatted block quote [:sometext...] Blockquote heading 1 [h1 Heading 1] Heading heading 2 [h2 Heading 2] Heading heading 3 [h3 Heading 3] Heading heading 4 [h4 Heading 4] Heading heading 5 [h5 Heading 5] Heading heading 6 [h6 Heading 6] Heading macro [def macro_identifier some text] Macros blurb [blurb advertisement or note...] Blurbs admonition [warning Warning text...] Admonitions table[table Title [[a][b][c]] [[a][b][c]] ]Tables variablelist[variablelist Title [[a][b]] [[a][b]] ]Variable Lists include [include someother.qbk] Include