1 files changed, 92 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/man/colitur-overlay.5 b/man/colitur-overlay.5
index 00a84a7..a2d2dae 100644
--- a/man/colitur-overlay.5
+++ b/man/colitur-overlay.5
@@ -251,6 +251,98 @@ accordingly. A local feast that never appears in output has usually lost that
 contest rather than failed to load \(em
 .B colitur check
 will confirm it loaded.
+.SH THE FLAT INI FORM
+For a calendar that only adds a few local feasts, drops one or two universal
+entries, and recolours nothing complicated, there is a flatter form converted
+by
+.BR "colitur convert" .
+Section names are slugs; a
+.RB [ overlay ]
+section carries the id.
+.RS
+.nf
+
+[overlay]
+id = my\-parish
+
+[our\-patron]
+date    = 07\-11
+rank    = class\-3
+colour  = white
+name.en = St Example, Patron
+
+[our\-dedication]
+date    = oct/sun/1
+rank    = class\-1
+colour  = white
+name.en = Dedication of Our Church
+
+[stanislaus]
+edit   = yes
+colour = red
+
+[barbara]
+suppress = yes
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+.I status
+defaults to
+.BR feast ,
+.I subject
+to
+.BR saint ,
+and
+.I layer
+to the file's id, so the common case \(em an ordinary local saint's feast \(em
+says only what distinguishes it. Dates take the three forms
+.IR MM\-DD ,
+.IB easter + N
+or
+.IB easter - N
+, and
+.IB mon / day / nth
+such as
+.B oct/sun/1
+or
+.B oct/sun/\-1
+for the last.
+.PP
+.B This form is deliberately less expressive.
+It covers
+.BR Add ", " Suppress
+and single\-field
+.BR Edit .
+.B Replace
+, multi\-field edits, citation edits and
+.B Remove_name
+are not expressible, and the converter refuses them
+.I by name
+rather than dropping them silently. Anything it cannot say is a reason to
+write the S\-expression form, not a reason to grow this one.
+.PP
+.B The conversion verifies its own output.
+The generated text is parsed back with the same function that loads an
+overlay, and must equal what the INI denoted; nothing is written if it does
+not. This matters because a transpiler emitting
+.I valid but wrong
+S\-expressions is the failure a convenience format invites, and
+.B colitur check
+could never catch it \(em the output would parse cleanly and simply mean
+something else.
+.RS
+.nf
+
+.B colitur convert my\-parish.ini > my\-parish.sexp
+.B colitur check my\-parish.sexp
+.fi
+.RE
+.PP
+The conversion is a separate step rather than something
+.B \-\-overlay
+does invisibly, so you can read what your INI became. When a date form was
+mistyped, "what did the engine actually get" is the question, and an invisible
+transpile cannot answer it.
 .SH SEE ALSO
 .BR colitur (1)
 .SH LICENSE