Markup Syntax and Parser Component of Docutils

Date: 2016-05-24

Note "reStructuredText" is ONE word, not two!

reStructuredText is an easy-to-read, what-you-see-is-what-you-get plaintext markup syntax and parser system. It is useful for in-line program documentation (such as Python docstrings), for quickly creating simple web pages, and for standalone documents. reStructuredText is designed for extensibility for specific application domains. The reStructuredText parser is a component of Docutils. reStructuredText is a revision and reinterpretation of the StructuredText and Setext lightweight markup systems.

The primary goal of reStructuredText is to define and implement a markup syntax for use in Python docstrings and other documentation domains, that is readable and simple, yet powerful enough for non-trivial use. The intended purpose of the markup is the conversion of reStructuredText documents into useful structured data formats.

See statemachine.py for an example of a Python module fully documented using reStructuredText.

Try it Online If you want to try reStructuredText out without downloading Docutils, you can play with the "simple online editor for reStructuredText" on http://rst.ninjs.org/