BEE comes with two interchangeable syntax: BEE Script and BEE Tag.

BEE Script is program code like syntax with common constructs like variable assignment, if-else, looping, function and other controls.  It starts with the command name, then followed by Attribute Name-Value Pairs in the form of name=value, and terminated with a semi-colon ';'.  It is useful in sections where processing algorithm is the dominant process (occasional outputs can be done with the display statement.)

BEE Tag is HTML like tag system that starts with "<bee" followed by a tag name then a series of Attribute Name-Value Pairs (name=value), and ends with ">".  It is useful in sections where displaying web page content is the dominant process (occasional controls can be inserted in BEE Tag forms, inter-mixing with the content and HTML Tags without causing syntax problems with non-BEE compliant authoring tools or web server.)

Internally, all BEE Script statements and structures are translated into a series of BEE Tags before being sent to the BEE Tag parser.  So by learning BEE Script, you would be able to read and write BEE Tag with no problem.

In this document, the following presentation convention is followed:

n        Constructs within a pair of square brackets are optional.

n        '...' means repeats are allowed.

n        '|' is used to separate two or more alternatives of which one and only one will be employed.