Links

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A few kinds of link are written as a name, a colon and brackets, so a reference reads as itself in the file and links on the page. As with emoji, the file keeps what you typed.

Scripture

scripture: makes a link to Blue Letter Bible, in the RSV unless a version follows a comma:

Swords into scripture:isaiah/2/1-5[plowshares] (scripture:[Isaiah 2:1-5, NIV]).

References in code, and bracketed text that doesn’t read as Book ch[:vs], are left as written.

scripture-lds: does the same for any of the standard works – Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price – on churchofjesuschrist.org. Books go by their full names or the usual short ones (1 Ne, D&C, JS—H, A of F):

RFCs

rfc: does the same for the RFC Editor. The brackets are required; left empty, they read as the RFC’s name:

A 404 is in rfc:9110#section-15.5[], and the flows are in rfc:6749[OAuth 2.0].

Searches

search: makes a Google search, for something to look into later. It shows with a dotted underline and a ⌕. Spaces in the bracket become + in the query, so these two are the same search:

Look into search:[commensality] later.

Profiles

linkedin:, bluesky:, gh:, fb:, insta: and yt: say where to find someone: a link to that profile, with the site’s mark before it. Words in the brackets are shown instead of the address.

- gh:jzheaux[my GitHub], and gh:jzheaux/reader#25[]
- bluesky:jzheaux[]
- yt:jzheaux[]

A YouTube video goes by its own path, yt:v/<id>, as a LinkedIn company does, since a handle can look like a video’s id.

Linking, or showing

Markdown draws a line between linking to something and showing it: [text](url) links, and ![alt](url) shows. Each of the short links above follows it too. What goes before its brackets is a URL, for a markdown link or image, and the link’s words stand for the brackets:

Each kind of link decides what it shows. Until one has something to show, ![]() is just the link, its alt text the words, so nothing breaks. Videos come first; a passage’s text, an issue’s card or an RFC’s section may follow. Elsewhere, a markdown reader can’t load ![alt](yt:...) as an image, so it shows the alt text, and the file still reads as plain text.

- Breathe with [a body scan](yt:v/FcWl8WgKP8E).
- ![The 404](rfc:9110#section-15.5), and [the ticket](gh:jzheaux/reader#196).

Videos

![alt](yt:v/<id>) puts a YouTube video on the page, from youtube-nocookie.com. A channel, ![](yt:jzheaux), is still a link. Alone in its paragraph, it’s as wide as the paragraph, up to the size YouTube shows it at; in a line of words, a list item or beside another video, it’s a smaller card.

What it is depends on whether the page is being written or run:

In Edit the page is drawn again at each keystroke, so nothing is asked of YouTube’s player until the card is pressed, by a click or with Enter or Space; the thumbnail is an image, as any image on the web is. Safari won’t start a video with sound from a press on the card, so there it starts muted, to be turned up in the player. Typing above it while it plays leaves it playing, in a browser that can move it without loading it again (Chrome, Edge and the desktop app); elsewhere it’s put back, stopped.

Work and a deck are shown a page or a slide at a time, so YouTube is asked for a video only once its page is turned to. A video that’s no longer on the page, a line taken out or another slide, stops.

As a radio or task item, the box is named for the video and still records the choice in the file; playing is the video’s own business, and writes nothing. So a video plays in a record that can no longer be worked (open-until:), and on a slide, where boxes can’t be ticked.

- ( ) ![Body scan · 5 minutes](yt:v/FcWl8WgKP8E)
- ( ) ![Morning stretch](yt:v/w6iG0mNHK28)

In Edit, Rendered shows two cards; press ⌘. for Work and each is the player.

A link to an image, ![](photo.jpg), is drawn as it always was, and so is a definition’s !term: ![ starts an image, never a term.

Other files

A relative link to another markdown file opens it in reader, as a link does on the web. ⌘-click or ⇧-click still opens it in a tab of its own, as text, and so does a link on a slide, so the deck doesn’t give way to another file. Images and links in a note resolve relative to that note, so ![](photo.jpg) next to the file works.

→ [Spring Security 7](spring-security-7.md)

Images, on hover

A link to an image (.png, .jpg, .gif, .webp, .svg, .avif) shows the image while you hover it, on a slide and in the rendered page:

- Hi, I'm [Josh Cummings](images/bio-me.jpg)