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My understanding is that this is a nested list parser. Nested lists are defined by the indentation level. Metadata for items can be specified by square brackets.

I don't see how this is different than just opening notepad.exe and writing stuff.

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Exactly! The idea here is to formalize the already intuitive way many of us use plain text. Once the syntax is formalized, it can be utilized by applications. This way your data remains in a portable, non-proprietary format that can be reliably parsed - whether you choose to use notepad.exe or a Margin-specific application, you already have everything you need.

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