rename file markdown -> formats, and expand content

1 files changed, 75 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/_formats.qmd b/_formats.qmd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc88a61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_formats.qmd
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+This project mainly involves navigating in and altering data structures.
+Main data structures are the document formats Markdown, HTML and PDF,
+and the abstract data language RDF,
+serialised as RDFa (embedded in HTML) and PDF (embedded in PDF).
+
+## Markdown
+
+Markdown is a text markup language
+with an emphasis on being easy for humans to read
+[@Gruber2004].
+
+Compared to word processors like Microsoft Word and LibreOffice Writer,
+Markdown authoring stores both content and markup together
+in a human-readable tekst file.
+
+::: {#fig-formality}
+
+```
+informal        /---------formatted text----------\        formal
+<------v-------------v-------------v-----------------------v---->
+ plain text     informal markup   formal markup    binary format
+                (Markdown)        (HTML, XML, etc.)
+```
+
+Markdown is informal, ASCII-based markup
+[@Leonard2016, p. 4]
+
+:::
+
+HTML is itself a plaintext format,
+but is less human-readable.
+Similarly the format LaTeX is also plaintext,
+but its markdown arguably distracts the reading process
+[@Mailund2019chap2, p. 9].
+
+### Alternatives
+
+Other human-readable document source formats exists.
+
+FIXME reStructuredText.  
+FIXME Org-mode.  
+FIXME AsciiDoc.
+
+### Integration
+
+Markdown is in widespread use.
+
+Major source forges use Markdown by default for `README` files
+[@Github2025; @GitLab2025; @Codeberg2024].
+Some major programming languages
+natively support Markdown in embedded docstrings
+in core tools
+[@Microsoft2023; @Oracle2025; @RustTeam2024];
+others offer optional support e.g. through plugins
+[@Heesch2025; @Sphinx2025; @JSDoc2023].
+
+## HTML
+
+*TODO*
+
+## PDF
+
+*TODO*
+
+## RDF
+
+*TODO*
+
+### RDFa
+
+*TODO*
+
+### XMP
+
+*TODO*