Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the people who have made a direct impact on the reStructuredText project, knowingly or not, in terms of encouragement, suggestions, criticism, bug reports, code contributions, and ideas borrowed from related projects:

David Ascher, Remi Bertholet, Fred Drake, Jim Fulton, Peter Funk, Doug Hellmann, Juergen Hermann, Tony (Tibs) Ibbs, Alan Jaffray, Richard Jones, Garth Kidd, Daniel Larsson, Marc-Andre Lemburg, Wolfgang Lipp, Edward Loper, Ken Manheimer, Alex Martelli, Paul Moore, Michel Pelletier, Sam Penrose, Tim Peters, Mark Pilgrim, Tavis Rudd, Ueli Schlaepfer, Bob Tolbert, Laurence Tratt, Guido van Rossum, Barry Warsaw, Edward Welbourne, Paul Wright, Ka-Ping Yee, Moshe Zadka

(I did get some yummy treats, but I'm still waiting for contributions of computer equipment and cold hard cash :-).) Hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone or misspelled any names; apologies (and please let me know!) if I have.

Release 0.4 (2002-04-18)

This is the final release of reStructuredText as an independent package. Development is being transferred to the Docutils project immediately.

General: updated docstrings for new field list syntax (bibliographic info); changed contact email addresses.

• install.py: Added to project.

• setup.py:

  • Modified for import by install.py.

  • Added 'restructuredtext.languages' subpackage.

• COPYING.txt: Added to project.

• docs: Subdirectory added. Contains quickref.html by Tony Ibbs and quickstart.txt by Richard Jones.

• restructuredtext/__init__.py:

  • Added docstrings.

  • Modified Parser.parse() for updated RSTStateMachine and dps.parsers.Parser.

  • Added form feed & vertical tab conversion to spaces.

  • Added a Parser.statemachine instance attribute.

  • Added parser language module support.

  • Updated for new root document Node creation protocol.

• restructuredtext/states.py:

  • Added support for enumerated lists (Body.enumerated(), EnumeratedList).

  • Added new exceptions: ParserError, TransformationError.

  • Loosened inline markup start-string & end-string patterns.

  • Added docstrings.

  • Changed RSTStateMachine.run() to return the document instance.

  • Extracted checksubsection() and newsubsection() from RSTState.section().

  • Added RSTState.nestedparse().

  • Fixed bugs with overline-section-header level parsing.

  • Fixed URI pattern to match absolute paths & news (opaque); only known URI schemes; IPv6 support.

  • Removed dependency on trailing spaces.

  • Extracted Body.block_quote() from Body.indent().

  • Changed underlines/overlines to require at least 4 characters (avoids '...', '???', etc.).

  • Factored SpecializedBody out of Body subclasses.

  • Factored SpecializedText out of Text subclass.

  • Added support for field lists, option lists.

  • Changed interpreted text roles to ':role:' syntax, outside of backquotes.

  • Simplified RSTState.inlineobj().

  • Dropped leading '_' from footnotes.

  • Dropped brackets from footnotes' implicit hyperlink names.

  • Added check for whitespace in hyperlinks.

  • Added empty comment support.

  • Added support for auto-numbered footnotes, auto-symbol footnotes.

  • Dropped requirement for blank line between definition list items.

  • Added support for classifier after term in definition list items.

  • Fixed bugs with literal blocks.

  • Changed element.extend(nodelist) to element += nodelist.

  • Added full table support (Body.table() etc.).

  • Split off NestedStateMachine (recursive) from RSTStateMachine (entry point).

  • Changed indentSM to nestedSM where appropriate.

  • Added language module support.

  • Changed numbered reporter.system_warning calls to named methods.

  • Name changes (lowercased, updated, improved).

  • Integer attributes on elements as appropriate.

  • Added directive functionality.

  • Mild refactoring: meaningful variable names, extracted common code to methods.

  • Removed debug code.

  • Updated: 'errorist' -> 'reporter'.

  • Added support for indirect hyperlink targets.

  • Updated for renamed add*link -> add*target.

  • Added inline hyperlink targets.

  • Added anonymous hyperlinks (.. __: & __ syntax).

  • External targets' URIs now in "refuri" attribute, not data.

  • Changed "[hyper]link" to "reference".

  • Added substitution definitions & substitution references.

  • Modified RSTState.inlineobj() to return end-string.

  • Added support for multi-line label text for hyperlink targets & substitution definitions.

  • Moved 'normname()' to dps/utils.py.

  • Updated for languagecode.

  • Updated for hyperlink, footnote transforms.

  • Updated for new root document Node creation protocol.

  • Changed "system_warning" to "system_message".

  • Removed gratuitous pseudo-default arguments from functions & methods.

  • Added literal blocks to system messages whenever the erroneous source text was omitted.

  • Wrapped problematic inline markup in "problematic" elements, added links to & from system messages.

  • Added Body.parse_extension_attributes().

• restructuredtest/tableparser.py: Added to project. Contains the TableParser class.

• restructuredtext/test_states.py: Refactored to test directory. This file removed.

• restructuredtext/directives/__init__.py:

  • Added directive registry.

  • Added directive module & function import support.

• restructuredtext/directives/misc.py: Implementation of a test directive, 'restructuredtext-test-directive'. Added to project.

• restructuredtext/directives/admonitions.py: Implementation of admonition directives 'note', 'caution', etc. Added to project.

• restructuredtext/directives/components.py: Implementation of document components directives 'contents', 'footnotes', etc. Added to project.

• restructuredtext/directives/images.py: Implementation of directives 'image' & 'figure'. Added to project.

• restructuredtext/directives/html.py: Implementation of HTML-specific directives 'meta' & 'imagemap'. Added to project.

• restructuredtext/languages: Subpackage added to project. Contains modules for language-dependent language-dependent parser features. Includes en.py for English.

• test: Subdirectory added. The top-level consists of a modular test framework begun by Garth Kidd.

• test/test_states: Subdirectory added; contains test modules refactored from the old restructuredtext/test_states.py.

• tools: Subdirectory added. Contains quicktest.py by Garth Kidd, a front-end to the reStructuredText parser; publish.py, a minimal front-end to the Docutils Publisher producing pretty-printed pseudo-XML; and html.py, a simple HTML-producing front-end.

• sandbox: Subdirectory added; for playing around. It's OK to make a mess!

• sandbox/rtxt2html: Subdirectory added, from files by Remi Bertholet.

• sandbox/paulw: Subdirectory added, from files by Paul Wright.

• sandbox/alanj: Subdirectory added, from files by Alan Jaffray.

• sandbox/richardj: Subdirectory added, from files by Richard Jones.

• spec/alternatives.txt: Added to project.

• spec/directives.txt: Added to project.

• spec/introduction.txt:

  • Python interpretation of interpreted text is a DPS job.

  • Converted sf to sourceforge.

  • Expanded markup purpose.

  • Updated footnotes.

  • Removed "Python-specific markup" from implementation plan.

  • Expanded on the "Unobtrusive" goal.

• spec/problems.txt:

  • Added mention of GvR's backslash escape endorsement.

  • Removed mention of compound enumerators.

  • Updated footnotes.

  • Removed "Parser Implementation Plan". (It's implemented!)

  • Revised.

• spec/reStructuredText.txt:

  • Modified inline markup prefix & suffix definitions.

  • Added a note on inline markup & escapes.

  • Added inline markup recognition order info.

  • Moved interpreted text's role outside of backquotes.

  • Changed interpreted text roles to ":role:" syntax.

  • Settled on field list syntax, updated definition.

  • Added 'abstract' to list of bibliographic elements.

  • Removed 'title' and 'subtitle' from the list of bibliographic elements.

  • Expanded bibliographic field list handling description.

  • Updated comments, indent/dedent.

  • Added definition of empty comments.

  • Loosened enumerated list requirements; clarified Roman numerals & alphabet letters; added syntax diagram.

  • Removed requirement for blank lines between definition list items.

  • Added 'classifier' to definition list items.

  • Added auto-numbered footnotes.

  • Removed leading underscores from footnote definition; added implicit hyperlink generation.

  • Updated & expanded definition of directives; added link to new directives.txt.

  • Added option lists & doctest blocks from pyextensions.txt.

  • Added VMS/DOS-style options to option lists.

  • Converted sf->sourceforge.

  • Expanded definition of whitespace.

  • Added Reference Names section.

  • Moved Standalone Hyperlinks section.

  • Expanded definition of standalone URIs.

  • Clarified definition of underlines/overlines.

  • Clarified handling of duplicate explicit hyperlink target names with identical URIs.

  • Added two escapes where needed.

  • Added a note about backslashes in other contexts.

  • Reworked literal block section in a more logical and easy-to-remember way.

  • Converted footnotes in text to auto-numbered.

  • Standardized on double-quotes (").

  • Changed "indirect hyperlinks" to "external hyperlinks".

  • Added new "indrect hyperlinks".

  • Added "anonymous hyperlinks".

  • Rearranged hyperlink description.

  • Added "Document Structure" section.

  • Added "division" construct.

  • Removed element hierarchy diagram to dps/spec/doctree.txt.

  • Added inline hyperlink targets.

  • Changed "hyperlink names" to "reference names", "link" to "reference".

  • Added substitution definitions, substitution references (use cases contributed by Alan Jaffray).

  • Added to table description.

  • Added note about hyperlink/footnote/citation reference name shared namespace.

  • Added "Auto-Symbol Footnotes", "Mixed Manual and Auto-Numbered Footnotes", and "Citations".

• spec/pyextensions.txt:

  • Removed from project (became DPS spec/python-mode.txt).

Release 0.3 (2001-07-19)

Removed all explicit hyperlink targets matching section titles in spec documents; they are now declared implicitly (see spec/reStructuredText.txt).

• restructuredtext/states.py: Added to project.

• restructuredtext/test_states.py: Added to project.

• restructuredtext/ndiff.py: Added to project. This is a modified version of Python's Tools/scripts/ndiff.py, and is used by test_states.py. I have committed to adding its functionality to Python's Lib/difflib.py.

• spec/reStructuredText.txt:

  • Introduced implicit hyperlink targets for section titles.

  • Changed 'comment block' to 'explicit markup block'. Rearranged & edited the text of footnotes, hyperlink targets, directives, & comments.

  • Clarified the syntax of interpreted text roles.

  • Clarified the case-insensitivity and character set of hyperlink names, footnote labels, and directives.

  • Changed the definition for simple link names and footnote labels (underlines and dashes allowed internally only, not at begin/end).

  • Added 'Error Handling' section.

Release 0.2 (2001-06-18)

• spec/introduction.txt: Minor changes.

• spec/reStructuredText.txt:

  • Added workable indented section syntax, then removed it. See spec/indentedsections.txt (included in this release only).

  • Added details of whitespace preservation in inline literals.

• spec/problems.txt:

  • Revised analysis of indented sections.

• HISTORY.txt: Added to project.

Release 0.1 (2001-06-02)

The project web site and the first project release were rolled out. Posted all but dps-notes.txt to the Doc-SIG 2001-06-03.

• spec/introduction.txt:

  • Title changed from "A Plan for Structured Text".

  • Expanded and revised the "Goals" section.

  • Brought the "History" section up to date.

  • Added the "Parser Implementation Plan" section.

  • Added internal cross-references (in anticipation of the far-off day when we can actually process these files :-).

• spec/reStructuredText.txt:

  • Title changed from "reStructuredText: Revised Structured Text Specification".

  • Added "Quick Syntax Overview".

  • Moved syntax diagrams from their own section to be adjacent to their construct.

  • Tightened up syntax specifications.

  • Changed "descriptive lists" to "definition lists", changed syntax.

  • Added field lists. Syntax not settled yet.

  • Added header row separator ('=') to tables.

  • Allowed comment blocks (comments, directives, hyperlink targets, footnotes) to occur in nested blocks.

  • Changed phrase-link delimiters from square brackets to backquotes.

  • Added a set of inline markup delimiter recognition rules.

  • Added interpreted text using backquotes ('`').

  • Changed inline literals to use double-backquotes ('``').

  • Added internal cross-references (to the doc, not the spec).

  • General reorganization, editing, & cleanup.

• spec/pyextensions.txt: Added to project (option lists, doctest blocks, and interpreted text interpretations).

• spec/problems.txt:

  • Added sections: "Blank Lines in Lists", "Definition List Markup", "Underlining".

  • General editing & cleanup. Tightened up analyses, added alternatives.

• spec/rst-notes.txt: Added to project.

First Draft of Specification (2000-11-24)

First posted to the Python Documentation Special Interests Group (Doc-SIG) in three parts:

• A Plan for Structured Text http://mail.python.org/pipermail/doc-sig/2000-November/001239.html

• Problems With StructuredText http://mail.python.org/pipermail/doc-sig/2000-November/001240.html

• reStructuredText: Revised Structured Text Specification http://mail.python.org/pipermail/doc-sig/2000-November/001241.html