<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Reviewed: no -->
<sect1 id="zend.markup.introduction">
    <title>Introduction</title>

    <para>
        The <classname>Zend_Markup</classname> component provides an extensible
        way for parsing text and rendering lightweight markup languages like
        BBcode. It is available as of Zend Framework version 1.10.
    </para>

    <para>
        <classname>Zend_Markup</classname> uses a factory method to instantiate
        an instance of a renderer that extends
        <classname>Zend_Markup_Renderer_Abstract</classname>. The factory
        method accepts three arguments. The first one is the parser used to
        tokenize the text (e.g. BbCode). The second (optional) parameter is
        the renderer to use, <acronym>HTML</acronym> by default. Thirdly an array with options
        to use for the renderer can be specified.
    </para>
</sect1>
