# Conventions for reference data pages

This documents lays out the conventions followed for data pages in this space.  This have been developed to:
* Maintain a consistent look across all pages
* Make the data easy to view on both mobile and desktop
* Be compatible with a variety of clients, taking advantage of modern client features where available and degrading gracefully otherwise

## Format

Reference pages use Gemini's gemtext format with a .gmi extension.  This allows graphics-mode browsers to render variable-width text, knowing that any preformatted text will be safely enclosed in ```.

## Tables

Tables are included as monospaced text enclosed in backticks, with lines no longer than 80 characters.  For example:
```Example table
 ```Properties of fruit
          Weight / g         Diameter / mm           Colour           Taste
 Apple     215                75                      Red              Sweet
 Orange    286                87                      Orange           Yummy
 ```
```

This is readable in clients which do not interpret gemtext, and allows gemtext-aware clients to render it elegantly.  It also allows mobile clients to display the entire table as a horizontally scrollable block.

## Sources

Each data page or part of a data page is followed by a reference link in gemtext format.  For example:

```Example source link
=> https://example.org/ Source
```