Markup Style Guide

This page covers the conventions for writing and use of the reStructuredText (RST) markup syntax.

rST Primer

rST (reStructuredText) is a highly flexible markup language we use to write the manual. Due to its flexibility, we have a list of recommendations and conventions that editors of the guide should follow.

Headings

The heading hierarchy should be as follows:

Document Chapter

Document Section

Document Subsection

Document Sub-subsection

Syntax
****************
Document Chapter
****************

Document Section
================

Document Subsection
-------------------

Document Sub-subsection
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Notes:

  • Please avoid having over 4 levels of heading hierarchy in a single chapter.

  • Each .rst file should only have one chapter heading (*).

Conventions

  • Three space indentation.

  • Lines should be less than 120 characters long.

Other loose conventions:

  • Avoid Unicode characters.

  • Avoid heavily wrapped text (i.e. sentences can have their own lines).