== LOona markup notation ==

 LOona's text markup is based on indentations and the systematic use

 of text elements that you would expect in good-looking plain text

 documents anyway. Albeit loosely based on the markup notation of

 other, more popular WIKIs, LOona's markup notation has some features

 to offer which recommend it especially for technical documentation.

 '''NOTE''': To understand these instructions, click on 'Edit' to see

 the plain text representation; use 'Preview' to try out some markup

 of your own.

 === 1. Block ===

 Text of a consistent indentation level running uninterrupted by empty

 lines is combined into ''blocks''. Lines in blocks can break at any

 position; the line breaks are not included to the result:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  This is a block.

  This is another

  block.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 === 2. Indentation ===

 ''Indentation'' is measured in the consecutive number of spaces at

 the beginning of a line; different indentation levels are taken into

 account accordingly:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  This is a block.

   This is another 

   block.

    This is a third

    block.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 === 3. Preformatted text ===

 For blocks of code and other kinds of ''preformatted text'' use an

 indentation that is ''two levels deeper'' than the current level,

 e.g.:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  Normal text

    /* Code markup */

  Back to normal

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 === 4. Code ===

 Inlined ''code'' is marked up between double braces. It may occur at

 any position in a line, but it must be the same line in which the

 opening and the closing of the markup occurs:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  This is {{code_markup}} in running text.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 === 5. Lists ===

 There are two types of items in ''lists''; ''soft'' and ''bulleted''

 items. They are recognized by their initiatory character (dash or

 asterisk), followed by a whitespace at the beginning of a line:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  - soft item

  * bulleted item

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 Soft items are, by the way, a natural means to enforce line breaks:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  - this is a line,

  - this is another line,

  - this is a third line.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 Lists follow the same indentation rules as normal text:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  * one

  * two

  * three

   * eins

   * zwei

    - ichi

    - ni

    - san

   * drei

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 '''NOTE''': Although not striclty required, it is recommended to

 indent lists by one level. This will help the parser to avoid

 ambiguities; otherwise, when a regular block follows an unindented

 list, it would be concatenated with the last item, as empty lines are

 not sufficient to break out from a list.

 === 6. Images ===

 Image references are enclosed by at signs:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  @@/images/loona.png@@

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 === 7. Links ===

 Links are enclosed in double squared brackets:

  * [[home]] - 

  Internal link: Link target is description at the same time.

  * [[Home page][home]] - 

  Internal link with description differing from the link target

  * [[http://loona.neoscientists.org/]] - 

  External link

  * [[You know what cool is][http://loona.neoscientists.org/]] -

  External link with different description

  * [[@@/images/loona.png@@][http://loona.neoscientists.org/]] - 

  Image link

 As for external links, LOona's configuration file offers a global

 option to decide whether external links should open in a new browser

 window or not. (Many people disregard this feature, while businesses

 seem to swear by it.)

 === 8. Tables ===

 Lines running uninterrupted with at least one cell separator in each

 of them automatically form a table. The cell separator is a double

 vertical bar:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  First cell || Second cell

  Third cell || Fourth cell

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 It is also possible to create empty cells as long as the separators

 are present. Note, by the way, that cell separators do not

 necessarily need to be aligned exactly below each other:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  First cell ||  || third cell

       || fifth cell || 

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 === 9. Headings ===

 Headings occupy an entire line. They are enclosed by at least one

 equal sign and a whitspace on each side; the more equal signs, the

 less significant the section:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  == Heading 1 ==

  === Heading 2 ===

  ==== Heading 3 ====

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 === 10. Rules ===

 A minimum of four dashes is interpreted as a horizontal rule. Rules

 may occur at arbitrary indentation levels, but otherwise, they must

 occupy the whole line:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  before the rule

  ----------------------------------------------

  after the rule

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 === 11. Emphasis ===

 An emphasized portion of text may occur at any position in a line,

 but the opening and the closing of the markup must occur in the same

 line to be recognized. 

 The emphasized text is surrounded by at least two ticks on each side;

 the more ticks, the stronger the emphasis.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  - normal

  - ''emphasis''

  - '''strong emphasis'''

  - ''''very strong emphasis''''

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 == Final note ==

 If in doubt, use fewer markup. Sparse application of compositional

 elements usually leads to better readability and stylistic clarity.

 If you can't produce the looks you project, first and foremost think

 of improving your stylesheet.

 Ok, for the desperate: There's a single lone hack in LOona's markup

 format which allows you to produce additional padding between

 elements, list items which may appear to be empty, etc. It can come

 to the rescue in some darned situations. It's the non-breaking space;

 produce it either by inserting the character code 160 (see your

 browser or operating system manuals on how to achieve this), or by

 writing the HTML equivalent ('   '). (See the plain text

 representation of this document, as it cannot be escaped.)