hd =

-[
The text enclosed within the so called dash-brackets shown above
and below will be interpreted as a list of character strings. It
can contain anything except uninterpreted dash-brackets, and can
be used in any declaration or expression. The dash-brackets don't
have to be on a line by themselves.
]-


example =

-[Some additional facilities allow here-documents to be nested and
combined. Writing something like -[ hd ]- within a nested pair of
dash-brackets will cause the text declared above (having the
identifer hd) to be inserted at that point. The enclosed item can
be any expression that evaluates to a list of character strings.
We could therefore "escape" a literal dash-bracket within a
here-document by writing -[ <'-['> ]-. Dash-brackets can be nested
to any depth, alternating between literal text and compiled code
on each level.]-

template "x" =

-[A further use of this notation involves defining a text-valued
function. The output of this function will be this text, with
the argument inserted here -["x"]- and again here -["x"]-. The
argument type should be a list of character strings.]-

formletter ("x","y") =

-[Other calling conventions are possible. The left argument
comes out here -["x"]- and the right one here -["y"]-.]-

designpattern =

-[A point-free style of function declaration is also supported.
The argument comes out here -[. ~& ]-, after being fed through
the function appearing within the nested dash-brackets (in this
case the identity function). This usage is indicated by a period
after the left inner dash-bracket. Nesting is also allowed in
point free dash-bracket function specifications.]-

abstractionastronaut =

-[Higher order functions to any level are specified by piling on
the periods like this -[.. ~&]-. This one is a second order function
that needs to be applied to another function in order to get a
first order function such as the previous three examples.]-