Examples of text markup

CSA-Prep, Fall 2004

An HTML example

For example of markup, consider the following body of text.

Computer Science is the academic discipline concerned with computing. The intellectual processes of the discipline combine theory, abstraction, and design. The process of theory includes the approach of verifying correctness of hardware and software, analyzing performance of particular designs. The process of abstraction involves recognizing patterns in comparable situations and distilling models that express common characteristics, while discarding attributes that differ from case to case. In CS's process of design, one designs structures in order to understand the principles and possibilities of computing, employing theoretical results and apply abstract notions, frameworks, and methods.

• With HTML markup added, that text might appear as follows.

  <p><strong>Computer Science</strong> (CS) is the academic discipline concerned with computing. The intellectual processes of the discipline combine theory, abstraction, and design.</p> <ul> <li><p>The <em>process of theory</em> includes the approach of verifying correctness of hardware and software, analyzing performance of particular designs. </p></li> <li><p>The <em>process of abstraction</em> involves recognizing patterns in comparable situations and distilling models that express common characteristics, while discarding attributes that differ from case to case. </p></li> <li><p>In CS's <em>process of design</em>, one designs structures in order to understand the principles and possibilities of computing, employing theoretical results and apply abstract notions, frameworks, and methods. </p></li> </ul>

• The markup informs a browser, printer, etc., about how the information should be presented, resulting in the following output.

  Computer Science (CS) is the academic discipline concerned with computing. The intellectual processes of the discipline combine theory, abstraction, and design. The process of theory includes the approach of verifying correctness of hardware and software, analyzing performance of particular designs. The process of abstraction involves recognizing patterns in comparable situations and distilling models that express common characteristics, while discarding attributes that differ from case to case. In CS's process of design, one designs structures in order to understand the principles and possibilities of computing, employing theoretical results and apply abstract notions, frameworks, and methods.

Alternative examples of markup

• The following is a LaTeX rendition corresponding to the HTML markup above. LaTeX was created by Lesley Lamport, a researcher for DEC, in the 1980s, and is based on Donald Knuth's TeX system, which appeared in 1982.

  {\bf Computer Science} (CS) is the academic discipline concerned with computing. The intellectual processes of the discipline combine theory, abstraction, and design. \begin{itemize} \item The {\em process of theory} includes the approach of verifying correctness of hardware and software, analyzing performance of particular designs. \item The {\em process of abstraction} involves recognizing patterns in comparable situations and distilling models that express common characteristics, while discarding attributes that differ from case to case. \item In CS's {\em process of design}, one designs structures in order to understand the principles and possibilities of computing, employing theoretical results and apply abstract notions, frameworks, and methods. \end{itemize}

  In LaTeX, the markup elements (e.g., \bf, \item) are called control sequences. In this LaTeX example, paragraph beginnings and endings are implicitly determined by the structure. Explicit paragraphs are indicated by blank lines, which operate as paragraph terminators; beginnings of paragraphs are ordinarily indicated implicitly by the text data itself. Observe that curly brackets {,} are used as delimiters in the markup; unlike SGML-like end-tags which name the type of element they are closing, one cannot tell which open bracket matches a close bracket without finding the matching bracket, character by character. However, the \begin{itemize}...\end{itemize} construct does resemble SGML matching of begin-tags with end-tags (SGML inspired this choice by Lamport).

• _____

  _____

  _____

rab@stolaf.edu, October 27, 2004