Writing I-Ds and RFCs Using Pandoc and a Bit of XML
RFC 7328
| Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(August 2014; No errata)
Was draft-gieben-pandoc2rfc (individual)
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
| Stream | ISE | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf html bibtex | ||
| IETF conflict review | conflict-review-gieben-pandoc2rfc | ||
| Stream | ISE state | Published RFC | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Document shepherd | Nevil Brownlee | ||
| Shepherd write-up | Show (last changed 2014-06-09) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 7328 (Informational) | |
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | (None) | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
| IANA | IANA review state | IANA OK - No Actions Needed | |
| IANA action state | No IC | ||
Independent Submission R. Gieben
Request for Comments: 7328 Google
Category: Informational August 2014
ISSN: 2070-1721
Writing I-Ds and RFCs Using Pandoc and a Bit of XML
Abstract
This document presents a technique for using a Markdown syntax
variant, called Pandoc, and a bit of XML (as defined in RFC 2629) as
a source format for documents that are Internet-Drafts (I-Ds) or
RFCs.
The goal of this technique (which is called Pandoc2rfc) is to let an
author of an I-D focus on the main body of text without being
distracted too much by XML tags; however, it does not alleviate the
need to typeset some files in XML.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other
RFC stream. The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at
its discretion and makes no statement about its value for
implementation or deployment. Documents approved for publication by
the RFC Editor are not a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7328.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document.
Gieben Informational [Page 1]
RFC 7328 Pandoc2rfc August 2014
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Pandoc to RFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.1. Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Building an Internet-Draft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Supported Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Unsupported Features and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6. Pandoc Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.1. Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.2. Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.3. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.4. Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Appendix A. Cheat Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1. Introduction
This document presents a technique for using a Markdown [Markdown]
syntax variant, called Pandoc [Pandoc], and a bit of XML [RFC2629] as
a source format for documents that are Internet-Drafts (I-Ds) or
RFCs.
The goal of this technique is to let an author of an I-D focus on the
main body of text without being distracted too much by XML tags;
however, it does not alleviate the need to typeset some files in XML.
Pandoc is a format that is almost plain text and therefore
particularly well suited for editing RFC-like documents. The syntax
itself is a superset of the syntax championed by Markdown.
2. Pandoc to RFC
Pandoc's syntax is easy to learn and write, and it can be translated
to numerous output formats, including, but not limited to: HTML,
EPUB, (plain) Markdown, and DocBook XML.
Pandoc2rfc allows authors to write in Pandoc syntax that is then
transformed to XML and given to xml2rfc. The conversions are, in a
way, amusing, as we start off with (almost) plain text, use elaborate
XML, and end up with plain text again.
Gieben Informational [Page 2]
RFC 7328 Pandoc2rfc August 2014
+-------------------+ pandoc +---------+
| ALMOST PLAIN TEXT | ------> | DOCBOOK |
+-------------------+ 1 +---------+
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