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#Layar

	Sequestered string mapping layer with modular manipulation contexts designed for flixibility and analytical advantages.

##What is Layar

[$TODO ~]

• String statistics without the need for analysis
• A middleman processor that both imports and outputs in a variety of markups

##Why did we create Layar

###History

Formatting text is tricky. If we store as richtext HTML we alienate our data, removing cross-platform useability in environments that don't render HTML.

A far more modern approach is to store as Markdown which is both lightweight and far more logical to parse.

###Issues

Whilst Markdown is more advantageous over HTML, it still requires a level of analysis prior to manipulation. To retrieve the second paragraph of a body of text you must either store paragraphs seperately, or apply a markdown-parsing method to get the first and last caret position of the required substring.

###Concept

Rather than storing text with formatting of any kind, Layar stores simple JSON. You can still store as markdown, or html (if you must) but you'll never lose the raw formatting rules. The need to parse your markup text to retrieve elements, lengths, links, quotes etc goes. Layar is a map.

String

"This is a string with some bold text. There are two paragraphs here."

JSON example

{
  "type": "b",
  "start": 27,
  "end": 37,
  "level": 1
},
{
  "type": "p",
  "start": 37,
  "end": 68,
  "level": 0
},
{
  "type": "p",
  "start": 0,
  "end": 37,
  "level": 0
}

Result

This is a string with some bold text.

There are two paragraphs here.

Example found here

##Roadmap

###Example Functions

Basic

//Number of paragraphs
layar.get("paragraphs").count()

//Length of first paragraph
layar.get("paragraphs", 0).length()

//Acummulative length of the first 6 paragraphs
layar.get("paragraphs", 0).to(5).length()

//Everything between paragraph 1 and 5
layar.get().from("paragraphs", 0).to(4);

Advanced

//Only paragraph text, without nested formatting, from paragraph 2 to 4
layar.get("paragraphs").from(1).to(3);

//Get all links from the first 3 paragraphs
layar.get("links").from("paragraphs", 0).to(2);

//Get the first quote from each (useful for pullquotes)
layar.get("quotes", 0).from("paragraphs", 0).to();


//All text between the second link and the third bold text
layar.get().from("link", 1).to("bold", 2);