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+ The NICETEXT bundle
+
+ (c) 2009 Uwe Lueck http://contact-ednotes.sty.de.vu
+
+
+ == General Idea ==
+
+The NICETEXT bundle supports ``minimal'' markup syntax for rather
+simple kinds of text. The code you type should show little more
+characters than are printed, though you get LaTeX quality. We try
+to do away with backslashes, technical terms, and curly braces
+(which also are so clumsy to type on PC keyboards).
+
+Main focus is easy documentation of LaTeX packages. Preprocessing
+by Perl or so is replaced by TeX macros (reviving/generalizing the
+'docstrip' idea), including expandable, safe, correct string
+substitution and typographical enhancements of plain text for
+LaTeX input.
+
+
+ == Packages ==
+
+'wiki.sty' addresses general kinds of texts. 'niceverb.sty' is
+made for documenting LaTeX packages. 'niceverb.sty' especially
+offers [almost-]WYSIWIG for meta-variables (macro arguments) and
+for referring to commands (and their syntax) in footnotes,
+section titles etc. E.g., to get the syntax description
+
+ \foo[<opt-arg>]{<mand-arg>}
+you just type
+ \foo[<opt-arg>]{<mand-arg>}
+!-)
+
+'fifinddo.sty' provides basic setup for text filtering, especially
+string substitution. 'makedoc.sty' extends it to provide a simple
+script language for transforming plain text package files into LaTeX
+input files [manual!?]. One LaTeX run can perform preprocessing and
+typesetting.
+
+
+ == Comparisons ==
+
+One source of inspiration is the markup syntax of editing Wikipedia
+pages. 'wiki.sty' of the bundle offers something similar as a LaTeX
+front-end for italics, boldface, sectioning, and certain list-like
+environments. This is also similar to 'easylatex',
+
+ http.//www.ctan.org/pkg/easylatex
+
+which is more powerful and uses Perl. NICETEXT, by contrast, consists
+just of LaTeX packages, working on any TeX installation [!? note
+restrictions in 'fifinddo.pdf']. Cf. also preprocessor packages
+'txt2tex' and 'txt2latex'.
+
+Concerning ``self-documentation,'' there is a difference to current
+`\DocInput', similar ideas are in 'gmdoc' and 'lineno.sty',
+see 'niceverb.pdf' and 'makedoc.pdf'. Standard 'doc.sty' and
+'contrib' extensions of it are rather avoided.
+
+There are several *LaTeX macro* packages for processing text or
+databases or for editing TeX's input stream while typesetting
+-- see 'fifinddo.pdf'. What seems to be new here is
+*expandable string substitution* and safe, correct detection of
+substrings -- discussed in 'fifinddo.pdf'.
+
+
+ == Documentation ==
+
+'fifinddo.pdf' describes 'fifinddo.sty', typeset from 'fifinddo.tex'.
+'makedoc.pdf' describes 'makedoc.sty', typeset from 'makedoc.tex'.
+'niceverb.pdf' describes 'niceverb.sty', typeset from 'niceverb.tex'.
+
+Typesetting them anew (for customizing printout) requires
+'makedoc.cfg', 'mdcorr.cfg', 'mkfddoc.tex' and the *.sty files
+in the working directory (no special guarantee that your hacks will
+work!) Cf. provided *.log files for what was input for *.pdf.
+
+'wikicheat.pdf' is a one-page manual of 'wiki.sty'. The file
+'wiki.sty' contains additional documentation as plain text.
+Note that certain features must be activated by commands in the
+document environment.
+
+
+ == What is missing ==
+
+A lot, see niceverb.pdf and fifinddo.pdf.
+
+
+ ________________________________
+ [This file 2009/04/15 Uwe Lueck]