Calculist, the Markup Language

(Note: If you have questions that this page doesn't answer, v0.x documentation can still be found on GitHub. You can also email [email protected]. We're currently working on getting everything updated for the v1.0 launch. Check back soon for more complete documentation.)

Calculist provides a powerful GUI, but under the hood is simple plaintext. This means Calculist documents work seamlessly with text editors and line-based version control systems like Git.

The markup language follows a few basic rules:

1. One line of text = one list item.
2. Indentation indicates nesting.
3. Special syntax always begins with a backslash \.

Slash Elements

All special syntax elements (slash elements) start with a backslash character.

Linking

• \id[unique name] for assigning a unique identifier to an item
• \ref[id] for linking one item to another
• \lookup[id / path] for embedding the value of one item in another

Computation

• \: value for defining a plain value (numeric or textual)
• \= expression for computing a value
• \(input) = expression for defining a function

Content

• \image[https://...]
• \link[https://...]
• \emoji[U+1F4DD]
• \metadata[...]

Format

• \header
• \bold[...], \italic[...]
• \highlight[...]
• \LaTeX[...]

Custom

Custom slash elements can be defined under slash dot \. to, for example, create shorthand names for commonly used slash elements.