,----[Pierre Willaime:] | I would like to format plain text emails to in- | crease readability and information separation. The | idea is to go beyond markdown and to have more | visible elements. `------------------
Markdown is intended for conversion into HTML and other formats (see Pandoc), while remaining a read- able plain-text file, which is compromise. You don't need this compromise if the ASCII is your only intended output. My own quest for the formatting of ASCII files ended up in GNU Troff, which can do all the standard ele- ments of sturcutured documents, such as: 1. Basic formatting, such as paragraphs, hyphen- ation, justification 2. Lists: bulleted, dashed, automatically num- bered. 3. Footnotes[1] 4. Sections and subsection. 5. Tables. 6. Wrapping of text around rectangular areas. For a small demo to begin with, see the CoreOps newsletter, which I typeset with GNU Troff: http://inversed.ru/CoreWar/CoreOps_02.txt I have typeset this e-mail in GNU Troff, so make sure to view it in a monospace font. ____________________ 1. Yes, indeed.