While reviewing the revision of the Fountain syntax file, I caught a small error with Fountain Flow. The title page material that I've treated as mandatory is supposed to be optional, so I need to fix the script so that it will just toss out the title page template altogether if there is no title page requested. Currently, the screenplay will format correctly, but you'll get error messages.
Similarly, I'm updating the syntax so that it will know if the top lines are title page material, or the script. Anything without a colon can be ruled out, of course, and if the top line is a synopsis it might have a colon, but we can disqualify it because it begins with the equal sign. Trying to think of what other situations might cause confusion. Perhaps if the first line is all caps, it can be disqualified. For instance, you might have a title in all caps, but the 'key' would not be:
Title: WHAM BAM BOOM!
So we know that's normal title page data. But if the first line is a character that just happens to include a colon, we'll know it's not title page data.
RE:SCAN
(seething)
What a gimmicky name I've got!
A character line that contains a colon and lowercase letters would have to begin with the 'at' sign, and so that can be automatically disqualified along with the synopsis line.
If the first line is a normal action line that contains a colon, it may be harder for the script to distinguish that from title page data.
As the girl runs: a truck takes a sharp turn and tips over, crashing into the corner building.
Disqualifying it on length would be awkward. Contact data might include a lengthy address. Of course, the writer could simply use a comma, but I'd rather have the script watch out for the user, instead of the user having to watch out for the script.
I'll just have to figure out something.
Anyway, second issue: I find that I still have managed to miss supporting some Fountain syntax, after all. SCENE NUMBERS are not supported, but I'll get that in there ASAP.
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