AsciiDoc

AsciiDoc is a human-readable document format, semantically equivalent to DocBook XML, but using plain-text mark-up conventions. AsciiDoc documents can be created using any text editor and read “as-is”, or rendered to HTML or any other format supported by a DocBook tool-chain, i.e. PDF, TeX, Unix manpages, e-books, slide presentations, etc. Common file extensions for AsciiDoc files are txt (as encouraged by AsciiDoc's creator) and adoc.

AsciiDoc file format

Filename extensions	.adoc, .asciidoc, .txt
Internet media type	text/asciidoc, text/plain
Initial release	2002 (2002)
Open format?	yes
Website	asciidoc.org

AsciiDoc.py

Original author(s)	Stuart Rackham
Developer(s)	Matthew Peveler, Dan Allen, Michel Krämer, et al.
Initial release	November 25, 2002 (2002-11-25)
Stable release	10.2.1  / 17 July 2024
Repository	github.com/asciidoc/asciidoc-py3
Written in	Python
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	Documentation generator
License	GPL v2
Website	asciidoc-py.github.io

Asciidoctor

Original author(s)	Ryan Waldron
Developer(s)	Dan Allen, Sarah White, et al.
Initial release	January 30, 2013 (2013-01-30)
Stable release	2.0.23  / 17 May 2024
Repository	github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctor
Written in	Ruby
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	Documentation generator
License	MIT
Website	asciidoctor.org

History

AsciiDoc was created in 2002 by Stuart Rackham, who published tools (‘asciidoc’ and ‘a2x’), written in the Python programming language to convert plain-text, ‘human readable’ files to commonly used published document formats.

Asciidoctor

A Ruby implementation called ‘Asciidoctor’, released in 2013, is in use by GitHub and GitLab. This implementation is also available in the Java ecosystem using JRuby and in the JavaScript ecosystem using Opal.js.

Some of O'Reilly Media's books and e-books are authored using AsciiDoc mark-up.

Most of the Git project documentation is written in AsciiDoc.

The AsciiDoc format is currently under standardization procedure by the Eclipse Foundation.

Example

The following shows text using AsciiDoc mark-up, and a rendering similar to that produced by an AsciiDoc processor:

AsciiDoc source text
= My Article J. Smith https://wikipedia.org[Wikipedia] is an on-line encyclopedia, available in English and *many* other languages. == Software You can install 'package-name' using the `gem` command: gem install package-name == Hardware Metals commonly used include: * copper * tin * lead

HTML-rendered result
My Article J. Smith Wikipedia is an on-line encyclopedia, available in English and many other languages. Software You can install package-name using the gem command: gem install package-name Hardware Metals commonly used include: copper tin lead

Tools

• Antora – a multi-repository documentation site generator for tech writers using git.
• AsciiBinder – (deprecated) a documentation system built on Asciidoctor for people who have a lot of docs to maintain and republish on a regular basis.
• awestruct – a static site generator inspired by Jekyll.
• Asciidoc FX – AsciiDoc Book Editor based on JavaFX 8.
• AsciiDocLIVE – AsciiDocLIVE is a free online AsciiDoc editor.
• DAPS – DocBook Authoring and Publishing Suite (DAPS) is command-line software to publish DocBook & AsciiDoc as HTML, PDF, and EPUB.

See also

• Markdown
• Comparison of documentation generators
• Lightweight markup language

External links

• Official website
• https://asciidoctor.org/
• Using AsciiDoc and Asciidoctor to write documentation - An AsciiDoc Tutorial