setext -> HTML converter

Tony Sanders <sanders@bsdi.com>
Errors-To: sanders@bsdi.com
Errors-To: sanders@bsdi.com
Message-id: <9306181712.AA02364@austin.BSDI.COM>
To: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Subject: setext -> HTML converter
Errors-To: sanders@bsdi.com
Reply-To: sanders@bsdi.com
Organization: Berkeley Software Design, Inc.
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 12:12:40 -0500
From: Tony Sanders <sanders@bsdi.com>

I'm working on adding a setext -> HTML converter to my HTTP server (I've
got it mostly working already, it's 42 lines of perl, will be about 75
when it's done).  The basic idea is to ease the mark-up required for simple
documents (like email) but it'll work for complex documents as well because
you can use other markup as needed.

Setext was created by Ian Feldman <ianf@random.se>, you can contact him for
his setext documents.  I'll try and make them available via HTTP after
I get my converter working better (they are in setext).

setext = structure-enchanced text

The Basics:

    Title		-> <TITLE>Title</TITLE>
    =====		-> <H1>Title</H1>
    subhead
    -------		-> <H2>subhead</H2>
    **bold**            -> <B>bold</B>
    ~italic~            -> <I>italic</I>
    _under_lined_       -> <I>under lined</I>
    hyper_text_         -> <A HREF="http:foo">hyper text</A>
    .. _hyper_text_ http:foo
    .. other dotdot lines are ignored

Note that you can put the ".. _hyper_text_ ..." lines anywhere (at the
end is a nice place).  This makes the text easier to read.

Setext also defines a blockquote and list style, I'll add support for
them before I release it.

<BLOCKQUOTE> for lines like:
> this is a block quote,
> look familiar?

and <UL>...</UL> for:
    * list item 1
    * list item 2

Currently I can convert documents like:

    Sample Setext Document
    ======================

    This is a sample setext_ document that shows off the various features
    of setext_ and how easy it is write hypertext documents.

    Wouldn't **you** like to be able to write documents using this _simple_
    form of document markup?

    What can you do with setext?
    ----------------------------

    Most of the things you want to do like:  headers, sub-headers, **bold**,
    _italic_, and hypertext links_.

    --sanders

    .. _links_  http:links
    .. _setext_ http:setext

to:

    <HEAD>
    <TITLE>Sample Setext Document</TITLE>
    </HEAD>
    <BODY>
    <H1>Sample Setext Document</H1>
    <P>
    This is a sample 
    <A HREF="http:setext">setext</A>
    document that shows off the various features
    of 
    <A HREF="http:setext">setext</A>
    and how easy it is write hypertext documents.
    <P>
    Wouldn't <B>you</B> like to be able to write documents using this <I>simple</I>
    form of document markup?
    <P>
    <H2>What can you do with setext?</H2>
    <P>
    Most of the things you want to do like:  headers, sub-headers, <B>bold</B>,
    <I>italic</I>, and hypertext 
    <A HREF="http:links">links</A>
    .
    <P>
    --sanders
    <P>
    </BODY>


Is anyone else interested in this?

--sanders