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<h2 id="purpose">Purpose</h2> <p>Setext allows viewing of marked-up documents without special viewing software. When appropriate software <i>is</i> used, however, a <a href="/facts/Rich_text/39S6HPWI">rich text</a>-style experience is available to the user. </p><p>Smaller documents are trivial to create in any text editor. </p><p>To prevent errors, most large <i>setext</i> publications are created using a markup language such as HTML or SGML and then converted. The <i>setext</i> document can then be distributed without the need for the recipient to use a HTML email or web viewer. </p> <h3>Multiple <i>setext</i> documents in the same file</h3> <p>Multiple <i>setext</i> documents can be stored in the same file, similarly to how the <i><a href="/facts/Mbox/r6eBSz0L">mbox</a></i> format can store multiple <a href="/facts/E-mail/6pD9GLtI">e-mail</a> messages together. </p><p>It was initially announced<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> that multiple documents could be included in a single stream, separated by a special <end> tag serving as a <a href="/facts/Delimiter/wRAQxIKV">document delimiter</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a>. After several months, it was clarified<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> that this tag was <i>not</i> an official part of <i>setext</i>, and that multiple documents should instead be delimited by $$ appearing at the end of a line of text. </p><p>Regardless of the number of documents stored in the same file, basic metadata can be stored about any or all of them by using the <i>subject-tt</i> tag syntax. </p> <h2 id="setext-tags">Setext tags</h2> <p>The following are the ten most common of the 16 different setext tags.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p> <i>setext</i> tag usage and examples<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a><table><tbody><tr><th scope="col">Name<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a></th><th>setext pattern</th><th>Example <a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a></th><th>Comments</th></tr><tr><th scope="row">title-tt</th><td>Title<p>===== </p></td><td>This is a long title====================</td><td>A distinct title identified by the text, maximum one per setext.<p>Must start at the beginning of the line.</p></td></tr><tr><th scope="row">subhead-tt</th><td>Subhead<p>-------</p></td><td>Subheading One--------------</td><td>A distinct subheading identified by the text, zero or more per text.<p>Must start at beginning of line. See note in title-tt about handling.</p></td></tr><tr><th>indent-tt</th><td>66-char lines indented by 2 spaces</td><td> First paragraph... ...more of paragraph.[blank line] Next paragraph...</td><td>Lines undented and unfolded (longer lines are generally tolerated by most parsers).<p>This is primary body text, generally plain undented in emails, etc. currently.</p></td></tr><tr><th>bold-tt</th><td>**[multi ]word**</td><td>This is **very important**...</td><td>One or more bold words, generally *word* or **word** in emails</td></tr><tr><th>italic-tt</th><td>~word~</td><td>This is an ~italic~ word.</td><td>A <i>single</i>, <i>italicized</i> word; multi-word form was not officially specified due to "visual-clarity reasons"<p>Multi-word form of ~first~second~third~ supported by <i>setext2latex</i>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a></p></td></tr><tr><th>underline-tt</th><td>[_multi ]word_<p>[_multi]_word_</p></td><td>This is _underlined text_. This is _underlined_text_.</td><td>Display in a (user) selected style, preferably with underlining--except in browsers where underlining corresponds to <a href="/facts/Hyperlink/LqNsa84e">hot links</a>.<p>One or more underlined words</p></td></tr><tr><th>hot-tt</th><td>[multi_]word_</td><td>This is a hot_word_.</td><td>Used to mark notes and URLs<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a></td></tr><tr><th>include-tt</th><td>>[space] [text]</td><td>> This is quoted text...> ...more...</td><td>Displayed in a user selected style, preferably monospaced with the leading ">"</td></tr><tr><th>bullet-tt</th><td>*[space] [text]</td><td> * Item 1 that is... ...really long * Item 2</td><td>Displayed in bullet or list format.</td></tr><tr><th>href-tt</th><td>^.. _hot_word URL</td><td>^.. _Wikipedia_home_page <a href="https://wikipedia.org">https://wikipedia.org</a></td><td><i>(Linked in the text with a </i>hot-tt<i> as Wikipedia_home_page_)</i> These 'link definitions' are commonly placed at the end of a paragraph/section, or at the very end of the setext document.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a></td></tr></tbody></table> <h2 id="standalone-setext-files">Standalone Setext files</h2> <p>By default all properly setext-ized files will have an ".etx" or ".ETX" suffix. This stands for an "emailable/enhanced text".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <p>Other lightweight markup languages (inspired by Setext): </p> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Markdown/yAL6qk7M">Markdown</a>, one of the most used.</li> <li><a href="/facts/ReStructuredText/Eh7XGmed">reStructuredText</a>, used to generate <a href="/facts/Python_(programming_language)/YbuGqofa">Python</a> manuals.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Textile_(markup_language)/yEb7wW89">Textile</a>, designed to generate <a href="/facts/HTML/sSc3fT78">HTML</a>.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Txt2tags/CF7Jh79B">txt2tags</a></li></ul> <h3>Notes</h3> <h3>References</h3> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/mirror/setext/setext_concepts_Aug92.etx.txt">Setext format</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010424104701/http://www.bsdi.com/setext/">Setext historical documents</a> at Archive.org</li> <li><a href="http://tidbits.com/article/3282">TidBITS introduction of setext</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-test/setext/">setext+sgml at W3.org</a>, including the same document in both <a href="https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-test/setext/setext+sgml_01.etx"><i>setext</i>-like plain text</a> and <a href="https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-test/setext/setext+sgml_01.html"><i>html</i></a> formats to allow a side-by-side comparison.</li></ul> <h3>Implementations</h3> <ul><li><a href="http://www.valdemar.net/~erik/setext/setext2html.txt">setext2html.pl</a> — A <a href="/facts/Perl/fx31kjlT">Perl</a> setext -> HTML converter</li> <li><a href="http://setextbrowser.zomdir.com/">setextbrowser.zomdir.com</a> <i>(<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181129222020/https://setext-browser.zomdir.com/">Archived</a> 29 November 2018 at the <a href="/facts/Wayback_Machine/nmQ3a6JC">Wayback Machine</a>)</i> – A <a href="/facts/Web_application/BLkF3BIN">web application</a> which let you browse the internet in a semi-setext format</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Engst, Adam C. "comp.sys.mac.announce / TidBITS file server available". UseNet. Retrieved 21 December 2015. <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/before$3A1992$2F01$2F01$20setext$20structure$20enhanced/comp.sys.mac.announce/huItllyV_p4/-X8pBRvRSPcJ" target="_blank">https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/before$3A1992$2F01$2F01$20setext$20structure$20enhanced/comp.sys.mac.announce/huItllyV_p4/-X8pBRvRSPcJ</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"TidBITS in new format". TidBITS. 1992-01-06. Retrieved 2022-07-01. <a href="https://tidbits.com/1992/01/06/tidbits-in-new-format/" target="_blank">https://tidbits.com/1992/01/06/tidbits-in-new-format/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>This was to function much in the same way as the original purpose of the ASCII "File Separator" (FS; 0x1C; typed as Ctrl-\) C0 control character but it proved too visually distracting and so was removed before setext was finalized. <a href="/wiki/ASCII" target="_blank">/wiki/ASCII</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"Administrivia". TidBITS. 1992-03-09. Retrieved 2022-07-01. <a href="https://tidbits.com/1992/03/09/administrivia-13/" target="_blank">https://tidbits.com/1992/03/09/administrivia-13/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Oliver, Erik. "Setext command reference". Erik Oliver's Home Page. Archived from the original on 2022-08-16. Retrieved 2022-07-01. <a href="http://valdemar.net/~erik/site-features/setext/" target="_blank">http://valdemar.net/~erik/site-features/setext/</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Feldman, Ian (1992-08-16). "What is setext". bsdi.org. Archived from the original on 2001-04-30. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010430053834/http://www.bsdi.com/setext/setext_concepts_Aug92.etx" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20010430053834/http://www.bsdi.com/setext/setext_concepts_Aug92.etx</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>(Not currently shown in table: note-tt, quote-tt, subject-tt, suppress-tt, twobuck-tt, and twodot-tt) <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>(For a document to be valid setext, the only required tag is either 'subhead-tt' or 'title-tt' - all others are optional.) <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>"(A) formal definition of what makes a setext: a text that contains at least one verified setext subhead or setext title" [6][7] <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>('-tt' stands for 'typotag', the Feldman's shorthand for 'typographic tags'; contrast with the 'tags' used in modern systems for categorizing data or photos into groups) <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>(i.e. the actual text as stored / transmitted, except in the case of bullet-tt. Visual appearance would be defined/controlled by the program displaying the document.) <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>"Setext2LaTeX". freecode.com. Archived from the original on 26 June 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2022.Oliver, Erik (2007). "Setext2LaTeX – setext -> LaTeX converter". Erik Oliver's Home Page. Archived from the original on 26 June 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2022. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140626075732/http://freecode.com/projects/setex2latex" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20140626075732/http://freecode.com/projects/setex2latex</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>"synonymous with the 'grouped' style of HyperCard" <a href="/wiki/HyperCard" target="_blank">/wiki/HyperCard</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>A href-tt or note-tt 'hot word' prefixed with an underscore (i.e., _hot_word) defines a hyperlink or reference, whereas a hot-tt 'hot word' suffixed with an underscore (i.e., hot_word_) references that hyperlink/reference by name in the body of the text. (Before the Web was ubiquitous, what are now commonly known as 'hyperlinks' were then commonly called 'hot links', especially in 'CD-ROM era' software such as HyperCard and Macromedia Director and in games such as Myst.) <a href="/wiki/WWW" target="_blank">/wiki/WWW</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>A href-tt or note-tt 'hot word' prefixed with an underscore (i.e., _hot_word) defines a hyperlink or reference, whereas a hot-tt 'hot word' suffixed with an underscore (i.e., hot_word_) references that hyperlink/reference by name in the body of the text. (Before the Web was ubiquitous, what are now commonly known as 'hyperlinks' were then commonly called 'hot links', especially in 'CD-ROM era' software such as HyperCard and Macromedia Director and in games such as Myst.) <a href="/wiki/WWW" target="_blank">/wiki/WWW</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>"TidBITS in new format". TidBITS. 1992-01-06. Retrieved 2022-07-01. <a href="https://tidbits.com/1992/01/06/tidbits-in-new-format/" target="_blank">https://tidbits.com/1992/01/06/tidbits-in-new-format/</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>