improve intro

1 files changed, 12 insertions, 35 deletions

diff --git a/_intro.qmd b/_intro.qmd
index 735b4c1..7cc5f54 100644
--- a/_intro.qmd
+++ b/_intro.qmd
@@ -33,32 +33,19 @@ but tying semantics to specific strings is currently unsupported.
 The author cannot express "this currency amount is in 1980 dollars"
 or "this uses the derogatory meaning of the term".
 
-A draft specification exists
-for a Markdown syntax extension to cover semantic text annotations,
-called "Semantic Markdown"
-[@Smedegaard2022].
+Few years ago a shoutout was made on a blog
+for extending Markdown to cover semantic text annotations
+[@Francart2020].
+This lead to a draft specification called "Semantic Markdown"
+[@Smedegaard2022];
+no actual implementation was made at the time, however.
 
-*FIXME: Elaborate on above draft spec and its relevancy.*
-
-*FIXME: Rewrite below to properly introduce Pandoc.*
-
-Pandoc reads a text document,
-parses its structural components into an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST),
-and serialises and writes back into a text document.
-The Pandoc AST deliberately prioritises structural information
-and is relaxed about visual information,
-to preserve literal content
-while reducing format-specific stylistic details,
-relevant especially when processing between different formats.
-Most common is to read plaintext Markdown files
-and write LaTeX code further compiled into a PDF file.
-
-This project aims to enable authors to include semantic annotations
-as part of their writing,
-similarly unobtrusively as structural and hypermedia markup,
-by extending the Markdown processor Pandoc
-to handle semantic text annotations,
-inspired by the syntax extension Semantic Markdown.
+Pandoc is a common and versatile Markdown processor,
+supporting two-way translation between Markdown and many other document formats.
+Pandoc supports adding import and export plugins
+and filters to manipulate its Abstract Syntax Tree (AST).
+This project aims to implement the Semantic Markdown draft specification,
+by way of a Pandoc filter to handle semantic text annotations.
 
 ## Problem formulation
 
@@ -91,14 +78,6 @@ by the following early design decisions:
 * The project solely involves freely licensed tools and resources,
   and is itself licensed under collaboratively incentivising free licences.
 
-These constraints are briefly explained below but not defended.
-The author of this project believes
-that they may help stimulate real-world practical use
-and raise the potential for long-term sustainable active development,
-but since the contraints are political in nature,
-no attempt is made to evaluate them
-or compare against other available options.
-
 ### Scope limited to authoring
 
 The scope of this project is to enable authoring,
@@ -136,8 +115,6 @@ but few are in widespread use.
 Pandoc is widely adopted and in recent times integrated
 with R Markdown and the Quarto document publishing system
 to streamline the production of academic papers.
-Pandoc is a versatile tool that supports extending through
-both import plugins and filters for its Abstract Syntax Tree (AST).
 The easiest way to implement a derivation of Markdown
 is likely by writing a Pandoc import filter,
 but that would limit its usefulness with larger frameworks like Quarto: