.. _code:

literal blocks
---------------

Sphinx interprets anything following the form ``:: <newline>`` as 
pre-formatted text::

   Text in a literal block::

      The indented paragraph following this is highlighted and presented as
      is.

results in :

Text in a literal block::

   The indented paragraph following this is highlighted and presented as
   is.

(Notice one of the colons has been removed.)

An isolated `::` functions similarly - both colons removed in output.

code
----

Code-blocks are highlighted when they follow a
``.. code-block::`` directive, 
where a trailing argument can specify the language.

The following python code is thus highlighted simply by appearing
in an indented region preceded by ``::``::

   #!/usr/bin/env python
   # -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-
   """Fibonacci sequences using generators
   
   This program is part of "Dive Into Python", a free Python book for
   experienced programmers.  Visit http://diveintopython.org/ for the
   latest version.
   """
   
   
   def fibonacci(max):
       a, b = 0, 1
       while a < max:
           yield a
           a, b = b, a+b
   
   for n in fibonacci(1000):
       print n,
   
.. seealso::   
   :ref:`literal includes <literalinclude>` for including code from files,
   numbering it and including code selectively.


Using the ``.. code-block:: <language here>`` directive, code
will be appropriately presented.  So::

   .. code-block:: sh

      echo $PATH
      for i in $(seq 1 10);
         do 
            echo $$( 2*i+3 )) 
         done;

will be highlighted as shell-code:

.. code-block:: sh

   echo $PATH
   for i in $(seq 1 10);
      do 
         echo $(( 2*i+3 )) 
      done;