Format Definition String

A FDS (short for format-definition string) is the common way to translate operator or statement general formatting schemes.

Definition

The simplest part of a FDS is commonly called a phrase.

Phrases can be selected from a list: this behaviour applies when phrases are separated by slashes and put between square brackets (e.g. [phrase 1/phrase 2/...]).

Definitions, though, are more flexible, and can be generalized.

• Variables, with the statement <variable:variable type> (the type is optional);
• Literals, with the statement <literal> (the type is optional);
• Generic values, which are either variables or literals, with the statement <value:value type> (the type is optional);
• Whitespace, with the statement <whitespace>;
• Punctuation, with the statement <punctuation>;
• Keywords, with the statement <keyword:statement>, referring to a statement type;
• Operators, with the statement <operator:statement>, referring to an operator type.

The statement <solidus> represents the slash, and is used to avoid confusion with the phrase selector separator.

This wiki and FDS

This wiki has a predefined template for code, which visually separates phrases.

It has the form {{Code|token type| ... }}.

The template also defines the phrase type type and literal as different.