paragraph

A paragraph is the default text block in Mechdown. It supports rich inline markup for formatting, references, and inline expressions.

A paragraph starts at a valid paragraph starter and ends at a blank line or a new block element.

Inline markup

Paragraphs support inline markup such as:

- Text formatting
  - **Bold text**
  - *Italic text*
  - __Underline text__
  - ~~Strikethrough text~~
  - !!Highlighted text!!
- Inline elements
  - `Inline code`
  - {{inline-mech := syntax + "highlighting"}}
  - {include/path.mec}
  - $$\pm\sqrt{inline^2 + equation^2}$$
- Links and references
  - [Hyperlinks](https://mech-lang.org)
  - Citation references [MECH]
  - Footnote references[^1]
  - Section references §2.1

References

Mechdown supports references for footnotes, citations, and sections.

Footnotes use [^label] inline and [^label]: definition where defined.
Citations use [LABEL] inline and [LABEL]: citation text in definitions.
Section references use § followed by a section number or section label.

Include disambiguation in {...}

{...} can mean either an inline expression or a source include.

If the content ends with .mec, it is treated as include composition.
Otherwise it is treated as a normal inline Mech expression.

Examples:

{1 + 1}            %% expression
{foo/bar}          %% expression
{parts/header.mec} %% include

Example

This paragraph includes a footnote[^1], a citation[MECH], and a section link to §2.1.

[^1]: Supplemental detail appears in the footnote body.
[MECH]: Mech Programming Language. (2024). https://mech-lang.org

This paragraph includes a footnote1, a citation[1], and a section link to §2.1.