# Concepts

Guided introduction to the bitmark language.

## Start

- [Why bitmark](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/why-bitmark.md): bitmark is the open knowledge format.
- [Getting started](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/getting-started.md): Three steps take you from a first bit to JSONL: try it in the playground, convert it on the command line, then use the parser in your own code.
- [The parser](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/parser.md): The bitmark parser is the reference implementation of bitmark.

## Concepts

- [The basics](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/basics.md): bitmark represents content as bits: typed, addressable pieces that people and machines read the same way.
- [Important terms & definitions](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/terms.md): It consists of a bit type, an ID, an item, a lead, an instruction, the body (the actual content) and, optionally, resources.
- [Text formatting](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/text-formatting.md): The text of a bit is formatted by default: styles, links, references, formulas, inline images and lists, all written inside the text.
- [Headings and paragraphs](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/headings-and-paragraphs.md): Headings and paragraphs are light bits of their own: `[.h]` for a heading, `[.p]` for a paragraph.
- [The bit passport](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/bit-passport.md): The bit passport is one header at the top of a delivery that applies to every bit in it: who holds the rights, under which licence, what AI may do with the content, and which accessibility standard it meets.
- [The Rosetta Map](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/rosetta-map.md): A bit can carry two identities side by side, like the Rosetta Stone carries one text in two scripts: the platform's and the customer's.
- [Alias and diff books](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/alias-and-diff-books.md): An alias points to content instead of copying it; a diff adds a layer of changes on top of it.
- [Versions and updates](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/versions-and-updates.md): A reader that holds a document wants to fetch only what changed.

## Use cases

- [Norms and standards](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/norms-and-standards.md): Standards are where bitmark's structure pays most.
- [Legal and citable content](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/legal-and-citable.md): Legal texts are cited to the paragraph.
- [Technical documentation](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/technical-documentation.md): Manuals, procedures and reference documentation are made of the same parts everywhere: headings, steps, warnings, figures and tables.
- [Learning](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/quizzes.md): bitmark grew up in learning content, and it still represents quizzes as bits in their own right: a cloze, a multiple choice or an essay sits next to the text it practises, with its solution and feedback, and can be cited and updated like any other bit.

## FAQ

- [bitmark and XML](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/bitmark-and-xml.md): bitmark does not compete with XML.

## About

- [The standard](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/the-standard.md): bitmark is an open standard.
- [Roadmap](https://docs.bitmark-association.org/concepts/roadmap.md): bitmark grows in the open.