11.5. ReStructured Text for those who know Markdown

You can think of RST as “Markdown, but much better”. Meaning:

RST is basically just as simple as Markdown
But RST is both more precise, and has more available formatting constructs (without getting crazy complicated)

The full Sphinx / RST documentation is available here: https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/index.html

If you’re familiar with Markdown, the following sections contain some tips to get you started in RST.

11.5.1. Whitespace and indenting

MD: Whitespace and indenting generally doesn’t matter in most cases. It does matter with bullets and sub bullets, but the rules get pretty weird, and vary between different Markdown renderers.
RST: Indenting matters. A lot. Just like Python. In general, you indent all RST text to keep it within the same level. For example, all this text would be a single paragraph

Blank lines also matter. A lot. You use blank lines to delimit sections within an indenting level. For example, the blank line before this paragraph denotes a paragraph break.
Note

RST was created by the Python community. Hence, whitespace is quite important.
- Indenting matters
- Blank lines between content matter

Using a blank line and outdenting indicates the end of the previous item. For example, this paragraph is not part of the MD/RST bulleted list.

11.5.2. Fixed width font

MD: Use single quotes:
```
`hello world`
```
RST: Use a pair of single quotes:
```
``hello world``
```

11.5.3. Italics

MD: *hello world* or _hello world_
RST: *hello world*

11.5.4. Boldface

MD: **hello world**
RST: Same as MD

11.5.5. Chapter and section delimiters

MD: Either use one or more pound signs (#, ##, ###) to the left of the line of text, or underline the line of text with pound signs
RST: Have a single line of text, underlined by non-ASCII characters.
- The length of the underlying must be at least as long as the line of text
- Which non-ASCII character is used for the underlying does not matter, but the order in which they are used denotes chapters / sections / subsections / etc.
  
  In these PRRTE docs, the sequence of underline characters we use are:
```
Chapter 1: hello world
======================
```
```
Section 1: hello world
----------------------
```
```
Subsection 1: hello world
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
```
```
Subsubsection 1: hello world
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
```
  Meaning: underlines made of = denotes chapters, underlines made of - denotes sections, underlines made of ^ denotes subsections, and underlines made of + denote subsubsections.

11.5.6. Multi-line code/fixed-width font

MD: Use three single quotes to delimit blocks of text. Optionally include a token keyword to denote the syntax highlighting to use inside that block.
```
```c
int main() { printf("Hello world\n"); return 0 }
```
```
RST: Use .. code-block:: KEYWORD to start a section of code.
```
.. code-block:: c

   int main() { printf("Hello world\n"); return 0 }
```
- KEYWORD indicates which syntax highlighting to use (e.g., c, c++ make, sh, ini, Fortran, diff, python, java, rst, … etc.).
- KEYWORD can be omitted if no specific highlighting is to be used.
- There MUST be a blank line after the code-block line.
- The lines in the block must be indented to the same column as the first c in code-block. For example:
```
.. code-block:: sh

   shell$ tar xf prte-<version>.tar.bz2
   shell$ cd prte-<version>
   shell$ ./configure --prefix=<path> |& tee config.out
```
  Note that the code block will be rendered at the same level as where the first . of .. code-block:: starts. In this case, the example code block will be rendered in the bulleted item.

Whereas this parargraph and code block will be outside of the above bulleted list:

shell$ tar xf prte-<version>.tar.bz2
shell$ cd prte-<version>
shell$ ./configure --prefix=<path> |& tee config.out

# Fun note: the code-block can contain blank lines.

The code-block is terminated by a blank line and then outdent back to the same level as the first . in .. code-block::.

11.5.7. Un-numbered bullets

MD: Start lines with * or -
RST: Start lines with *. You can wrap lines at the same indenting level to make paragraphs in the same bullet.

Having a blank line and then more text at the same indenting level makes another paragraph in the same bullet. You even put other directives in this same indenting level.
- For example, you can start a sub bullet.
  
  This text is the next paragraph in the same sub bullet.
```
This is a verbatim code block within this same sub bullet.
More about code-blocks below.
```
  This is the next paragraph (after the code block) in the same sub bullet.
- If you start a new bullet, that terminates the previous bullet.
- You MUST put blank lines between bullets!

11.5.8. Numbered bullets:

MD: Start lines with #
RST: Start lines with #.

Important

Yes, the trailing . is important

For example:
```
#. Item number 1
#. The second item
#. A third item
```
All the same rules for indentation apply as described above.

11.5.9. Comments

MD: Enclose content in  (i.e., HTML comments, but they are included in the output)

RST: Start a line with two periods and a space.

For example, the following block is a comment, and will not be included in the output:

.. Hello world.  This is a comment.  This whole block is a
   comment.  You can leave it here in the final document, and it
   will not be included in the rendered output.

   Your comment can even include blank lines.  You terminate a
   comment -- just like most other things in RST -- by a blank
   line and then outdenting back out to the same column as the
   first ".".

This line is no longer part of the comment.

11.5.10. Including files

MD: You cannot include files in Markdown.
RST: Use the .. include:: FILENAME directive. For example:
```
.. include:: features-extensions.rst
.. include:: features-java.rst
```
Those directives include those 2 files right here in this RST file.

Important

Chapter/section/subsection delimiters will be continued in those files as part of rendering this file.

11.5.11. Hyperlinks to URLs

MD:

[this is the link text](https://example.com/)

RST:
```
`this is the link text <https://example.com/>`_
```
Important

Yes, the trailing underscore in RST is important. It’s a little weird, but you’ll cope.

11.5.12. Hyperlinks to anchors

MD: I forget offhand how to make anchors and links to them in MD.
RST: Use the :ref: directive.

Make an anchor like this:
```
.. _ANCHOR_NAME:
```
It must start with and underscore and end with a colon.

I’ve typically used anchor names that either begin with label- or end in -label to make it blatantly obvious that it’s a label. For example:
```
.. _building-and-installing-section-label:
```
Then you can use the :ref: directive:
```
be sure to see :ref:`the VPATH build section
<building-and-installing-section-label>`.
```

11.5.13. Hyperlinks to other (RST) pages

MD:
```
[link text](page_name)
```
RST: Use the :doc: directive.

General format:
```
:doc:`link text <PAGE_PATH>`
```
For example:
```
You should read :doc:`the Developer's Guide </developers>`.
```
The page path is relative to the docs dir in the PRRTE git tree.

11.5.14. Macros

MD: There are no macros in Markdown.
RST: We have defined a few PRRTE-specific macros in RST. You can insert these macros anywhere in RST content text.
- |ompi_ver| is the full PRRTE version number, including alpha/beta/rc/greek denotation. For example 5.0.0rc1.
- |ompi_series| is the major/minor PRRTE version, e.g., 5.0.x.
  
  Important
  
  Think twice about hard-coding the PRRTE version number or series when referring to the current version or series. It can be appropriate to hard-code an “x.y.0” version to denote a generational epoch, but in most other cases, you probably want to use one of the macros.
- |mdash| is a unicode long dash, an “em” dash. Use it instead of --.
- |rarrow| is a unicode right arrow. Use it instead of -> or -->.

11.5.15. Brightly-colored boxes

MD: There are no brightly-colored boxes in MD.
RST: You can use various directives to make brightly-colored “note” boxes (Called admonitions) in RST. For example:
Important

a green box with a “!” icon

Standard indenting rules apply for the content in the box. You can have multiple lines and multiple paragraphs, for example.

Yippee.
- You can even have bullets.
  You can even have code blocks inside the bullet inside the caution box.
- All the standard indenting rules apply.
Hint

a green box with a “!” icon

Note

a blue box with a “!” icon

Caution

an orange box with a “!” icon

Attention

an orange box with a “!” icon

Warning

an orange box with a “!” icon

Error

a red box with a “!” icon

Danger

a red box with a “!” icon
Custom title

You can name this box whatever you want:
```
.. admonition:: Custom title
   :class: tip

   Content of your box here.
```
Custom text for this custom admonition. Note that the :class: <type> will change the coloring to the color for the basic admonition of that type. E.g., :class: tip makes the box be green.