Setext

Setext (Structure Enhanced Text)^[2] 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 (such as HTML), the markup is easily readable without any parsing or special software.

Setext

Filename extension	.etx[a]
Developed by	Ian Feldman
Initial release	January 6, 1992; 33 years ago (1992-01-06)
Type of format	Lightweight markup language

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. When appropriate software is used, however, a rich text-style experience is available to the user.

Smaller documents are trivial to create in any text editor.

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.

Multiple setext documents in the same file

Multiple setext documents can be stored in the same file, similarly to how the mbox format can store multiple e-mail messages together.

It was initially announced^[1] that multiple documents could be included in a single stream, separated by a special <end> tag serving as a document delimiter^[b]. After several months, it was clarified^[3] that this tag was not an official part of setext, and that multiple documents should instead be delimited by $$ appearing at the end of a line of text.

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 subject-tt tag syntax.

Setext tags

The following are the ten most common of the 16 different setext tags.^[4][5][c]

setext tag usage and examples^[d][e]

Name[f]	setext pattern	Example [g]	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.	A single, italicized word; multi-word form was not officially specified due to "visual-clarity reasons" Multi-word form of ~first~second~third~ supported by setext2latex.[8]
underline-tt	[_multi ]word_ [_multi]_word_	This is _underlined text_. 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_.	Used to mark notes and URLs[h][i]
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.
href-tt	^.. _hot_word URL	^.. _Wikipedia_home_page https://wikipedia.org	(Linked in the text with a hot-tt as Wikipedia_home_page_) These 'link definitions' are commonly placed at the end of a paragraph/section, or at the very end of the setext document.[i]

Standalone Setext files

By default all properly setext-ized files will have an ".etx" or ".ETX" suffix. This stands for an "emailable/enhanced text".^[1]

See also

Other lightweight markup languages (inspired by Setext):

• Markdown, one of the most used.
• reStructuredText, used to generate Python manuals.
• Textile, designed to generate HTML.
• txt2tags