The [Notebook App] uses [Tcl] as a [markup language]. This is certainly an easy way of storing and retrieving information, but how is it regarded considering cleanliness of coding? Is it considered bad practice?

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Well, I have always found markup languages, in general, to be obtuse if not
actually hostile to use.

Some people prefer the verbosity and complexity of [TeX] related 
markup.  Some are satisfied with [HTML].  Some want some variation of
[SGML]/[XML]--Linuxdoc and [DocBook], for example, are SGML and XML
applications celebrated for their use in [Linux]
documentation
[http://www.tldp.org/authors/].

But SGML based markup is pretty wordy, if not obtuse when trying to do
various combinations.

In the Tcl [man page] world, the original docs were formatted with *roff
markup.  The reason for this was that the reference pages were installed
in the same hierarchy tree as other system documentation, allowing one
to use the man command to read the docs.

Later, when [Windows] was supported, doc was provided on that platform in
some kind of help file format.

Extension writers tended to use the *roff for most docs, though a few
(including [bwidget]) distributed their documentation in html.

A few efforts have occurred over the years to use something more
''cross platform''.  For instance, see the [tmml] for one effort to
use an xml like format for tcl man pages.  There is also the lightweight
system Aida [http://alphatcl.sourceforge.net/wikit/127] which has
translators to many common formats.

Then, as a part of the [tcllib] effort, the [doctools] module was created
so that tcllib module documentation could be more easily created.  A
developer using this notation can generate documentation files in a
variety of formats.

I believe that [[someone '''PLEASE''' replace this comment with the
appropriate reference!]] even tried the tcl commands as markup approach
as well.  Perhaps check this page's category list to see if you can
turn up something.

[RS]: Of course Tcl can work as a markup language - see [expand] or [entities], for instance.
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"Some people prefer the verbosity and complexity of TeX related markup." - As a former
[TeX] user, I feel that I must complain about the thought expressed here.
TeX users don't prefer complexity; they prefer control (or need it), and are willing to
live with the complexity in order to achieve it. One of my favorite [TeX]
documents creates a table of the first ''n'' primes, where you get to choose ''n''
as you create the input file.  The rest of the program not only formats a table
with then answers, it ''calculates'' the answers as well.  Try doing that in [HTML]
or other [markup language].  [Tex] is a solution to some very difficult formatting
problems that would be hard to achieve any other way.  At the time it was designed,
it answered many problems that have since found other solutions.  However, for
the highest quality computer typesetting, I have not really found anything superior.
(I truly love having fonts with the "ffi" ligature that can be used where it is
appropriate.) - ''[escargo] 17 Sept 2004''
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[Category Documentation]