Setext is a lightweight markup language

Lightweight markup language

A lightweight markup language is a markup language with a simple syntax, designed to be easy for a human to enter with a simple text editor, and easy to read in its raw form....

 used to format plain text documents such as e-newsletters, Usenet

Usenet

Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...

 postings, and e-mails. In contrast to some other markup languages (such as HTML

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

), the text is easily readable without any parsing

Parsing

In computer science and linguistics, parsing, or, more formally, syntactic analysis, is the process of analyzing a text, made of a sequence of tokens , to determine its grammatical structure with respect to a given formal grammar...

 or special software.

Setext was first introduced in 1992 by Ian Feldman for use in the TidBITS

TidBITS

TidBITS is an influential electronic newsletter and web site dealing primarily with Apple Computer and Macintosh-related topics.-Internet publication:...

electronic newsletter.

Purpose

Setext allows viewing of marked-up documents without special viewing software. To prevent errors, most large setext publications are created using a markup language such as HTML or SGML and then converted. The setext document can then be distributed without the need for the recipient to use a html email or web viewer.

Setext tags

The following are the most common setext tags.

Name	setext pattern	Example	Comments
title-tt	Title	This is a long title	A distinct title identified by the text, maximum one per setext. Must start at the beginning of the line.
subhead-tt	Subhead -------	Subheading One --------------	A distinct subheading identified by the text, zero or more per text. Must start at beginning of line. See note in title-tt about handling.
indent-tt	66-char lines indented by 2 spaces	First paragraph... ...more of paragraph. [blank line] Next paragraph...	Lines undented and unfolded (longer lines are generally tolerated by most parsers). This is primary body text, generally plain undented in emails, etc. currently.
bold-tt	**[multi]word**	This is **very important**...	One or more bold words, generally *word* or **word** in emails
italic-tt	~word~	This is an ~italic~ word.	Single italicized word; unclear why multi-word form not available. Multi-word form of ~first~second~third~ supported by setext2latex.
underline-tt	[_multi]_word_	This is _underlined_text_.	Display in a (user) selected style, preferably with underlining--except in browsers where underlining corresponds to hot links. One or more underlined words
hot-tt	[multi_]word_	This is a hot_word_.
include-tt	>[space][text]	> This is quoted text... > ...more...	Displayed in a user selected style, preferably monospaced with the leading ">"
bullet-tt	*[space][text]	Item 1 that is... ...really long Item 2	Displayed in bullet or list format.

Standalone Setext files

By default all properly setext-ized files will have an ".etx" or ".ETX" suffix. This stands for an "emailable/enhanced text",

External links

• Setext format
• Setext historical documents at Archive.org
• TidBITS introduction of setext

Implementations

• setext2html.pl — A Perl
  Perl
  Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
  
   setext -> HTML converter
• Zenvilla — A setext reader for Mac OS X, written in Cocoa
  Cocoa (API)
  Cocoa is Apple's native object-oriented application programming interface for the Mac OS X operating system and—along with the Cocoa Touch extension for gesture recognition and animation—for applications for the iOS operating system, used on Apple devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and...
  
  
• setextbrowser.zomdir.com - A web application
  Web application
  A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
  
  which let you browse the internet in a semi Setext format