Basic Specification

Paragraphs contain text and may contain inline markup: emphasis, strong emphasis, interpreted text, inline literals, standalone hyperlinks (http://www.python.org), external hyperlinks (Python), internal cross-references (example), footnote references ([1]), citation references ([CIT2002]), substitution references (), and inline internal targets.

List

Bullet lists:

  • This is a bullet list.
  • Bullets can be "*", "+", or "-".

Enumerated lists:

  1. This is an enumerated list.
  2. Enumerators may be arabic numbers, letters, or roman numerals.

Definition lists:

what
Definition lists associate a term with a definition.
how
The term is a one-line phrase, and the definition is one or more paragraphs or body elements, indented relative to the term.

Field lists:

what:

Field lists map field names to field bodies, like database records. They are often part of an extension syntax.

how:

The field marker is a colon, the field name, and a colon.

The field body may contain one or more body elements, indented relative to the field marker.

Option lists, for listing command-line options:

-a command-line option "a"
-b file options can have arguments and long descriptions
--long options can be long also
--input=file long options can also have arguments
/V DOS/VMS-style options too

Literal blocks:

if literal_block:
text = 'is left as-is' spaces_and_linebreaks = 'are preserved' markup_processing = None

Block quotes:

This theory, that is mine, is mine.

—Anne Elk (Miss)

Simple Table

Header row, column 1 Header 2 Header 3
body row 1, column 1 column 2 column 3
body row 2 Cells may span columns

Citation

[1]A footnote contains body elements, consistently indented by at least 3 spaces.
[CIT2002]Just like a footnote, except the label is textual.
module=xml.xslt class=Processor

The "_example" target above points to this paragraph.