Setext


Setext is a lightweight markup language used to format plain text documents such as e-newsletters, Usenet postings, and e-mails. In contrast to some other markup languages, the markup is easily readable without any parsing or special software.
Setext was first introduced in 1991 by Ian Feldman for use in the TidBITS 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.
Must start at the beginning of the line.
! class="nowrap" |subhead-tt
-------
--------------
Must start at beginning of line. See note in title-tt about handling.
! indent-tt
preFirst paragraph...
...more of paragraph.

Next paragraph...
This is primary body text, generally plain undented in emails, etc. currently.
! bold-tt
! italic-tt
Multi-word form of ~first~second~third~ supported by setext2latex.
! class="nowrap" |underline-tt
One or more underlined words
! hot-tt
! include-tt
> This is quoted text...
>...more...
! bullet-tt
*
* Item 1 that is...
...really long
* Item 2

Standalone Setext files

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

Implementations