Lightweight markup language - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A lightweight markup language is a markup language

Markup language

A markup language is a modern system for annotating a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from that text. The idea and terminology evolved from the "marking up" of manuscripts, i.e. the revision instructions by editors, traditionally written with a blue pencil on authors' manuscripts...

with a simple syntax, designed to be easy for a human to enter with a simple text editor

Text editor

A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....

, and easy to read in its raw form.

Lightweight markup languages are used in applications where people might be expected to read the document source as well as the rendered output. For instance, a person downloading a software library might prefer to read the documentation in a text editor rather than a browser.

Another application is for entry in web-based publishing, such as weblogs and wiki

Wiki

A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...

s, where the input interface is a simple text box

Text box

A text box, text field or text entry box is a kind of widget used when building a graphical user interface . A text box's purpose is to allow the user to input text information to be used by the program...

. The server software converts the input to a common document markup language like HTML

HTML

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

or XHTML

XHTML

XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....

History

Lightweight markup languages were originally used on text-only displays which could not display characters in italics or bold, so informal methods to convey this information had to be developed. This formatting choice was naturally carried forth to plain-text email communications.

1986 international standard SGML provided facilities to define and parse lightweight markup languages using grammars and tag implication. The 1998 W3C XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

is a profile of SGML that omits these facilities.

Types

Presentation oriented languages include AsciiDoc

AsciiDoc

AsciiDoc is a lightweight markup language. It requires the installation of a special AsciiDoc "converter program" that can convert AsciiDoc documents to XHTML, DocBook or HTML. DocBook in turn can be converted to other formats such as PDF, TeX, Unix manpages and many more using the tool A2X which...

, BBCode

BBCode

BBCode or Bulletin Board Code is a lightweight markup language used to format posts in many message boards. The available tags are usually indicated by square brackets surrounding a keyword, and they are parsed by the message board system before being translated into a markup language that web...

, Creole

Creole (markup)

Creole is a lightweight markup language for formatting wikitext, aimed at being a common markup language for wikis, enabling and simplifying the transfer of content between different wiki engines....

, Crossmark

Crossmark

Crossmark is a flexible, lightweight textual markup language, based on the earlier Markdown language. It has a syntax similar to Wiki and support...

, deplate, Epytext, EtText

EtText

EtText is a simple plain-text lightweight markup language which allows conversion to and from HTML. Instead of editing HTML directly, it provides an easy-to-edit, easy-to-read and intuitive way to write HTML, based on the plain-text markup conventions we've been using for years.Like most simple...

, Haml

Haml

Haml is a lightweight markup language that is used to describe the XHTML of any web document without the use of traditional inline coding. It’s designed to address many of the flaws in traditional templating engines, as well as making markup as elegant as it can be...

, JsonML

JsonML

JsonML, the JSON Markup Language is a lightweight markup language used to map between XML and JSON...

, MakeDoc

MakeDoc

MakeDoc is a lightweight markup language created in 2000 by Carl Sassenrath for creating documentation and web pages using simple text notations. The language is used extensively in the REBOL community for documentation, websites, and wikis.-Overview:...

, Markdown

Markdown

Markdown is a lightweight markup language, originally created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz allowing people "to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML "...

, Org-mode

Org-mode

Org-mode is an editing mode in the text editor Emacs which supports the editing of plain text hierarchical documents. It has specific support for a number of different use cases, such as writing to-do lists, project planning, and writing web pages...

, POD

Plain Old Documentation

Plain Old Documentation, abbreviated pod, is a lightweight markup language used to document the Perl programming language.-Design:pod is designed to be a simple, clean language with just enough syntax to be useful. It purposefully does not include mechanisms for fonts, images, colors or tables...

, reStructuredText

ReStructuredText

reStructuredText is a lightweight markup language intended to be highly readable in source format. Its formal name indicates that it is a "revised, reworked, and reinterpreted StructuredText."...

, Ruby Document format

Ruby Document format

RD is a lightweight markup languagefor writing Ruby-related documents.It can be embedded in Ruby source code.RD is a traditional format.In modern Ruby, developers tend to write documents in RDoc instead of RD.- Use :...

, Setext

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 text is easily readable without any parsing or special software....

, SiSU

SiSU

SiSU , is a Unix command line-oriented framework for document structuring, publishing and search.-Usage:...

, SPIP

SPIP

SPIP is a free software content management system designed for Web site publishing, oriented towards online collaborative editing....

, Struxt

Struxt

Struxt is a human-readable data format designed to be structurally equivalent to XML yet representationally similar to C-style programming languages.'Struxt stands for "Structured Text".- Features :...

, Texy!

Texy!

Texy! is a text-to-XHTML formatter and converter library. It allows the user to write structured documents without knowledge or using of HTML language. The user writes documents in easy-to-read plain text format and Texy! converts it to structurally valid and well-formed XHTML code.Texy! is one of...

, Textile

Textile (markup language)

Textile is a lightweight markup language originally developed by Dean Allen and billed as a "humane Web text generator". Textile converts its marked-up text input to valid, well-formed XHTML and also inserts character entity references for apostrophes, opening and closing single and double...

, txt2tags

Txt2tags

txt2tags is a document generator software that uses a lightweight markup language. txt2tags is free software under GNU General Public License....

, UDO

UDO (markup language)

UDO is a lightweight markup language. It requires the installation of a special UDO "converter program" that can convert UDO documents to Apple-QuickView, ASCII, HTML, Texinfo, Linuxdoc-SGML, Manualpage, Pure-C-Help, Rich Text Format, ST-Guide, LaTeX, Turbo Vision Help or Windows Help formats....

and Wikitext

Wikitext

Wikitext language, or wiki markup, is a lightweight markup language used to write pages in wiki websites, such as Wikipedia, and is a simplified alternative/intermediate to HTML. Its ultimate purpose is to be converted by wiki software into HTML, which in turn is served to web browsers.There is no...

.

Data serialization oriented languages include Curl (programming language) (homoiconic, but also reads JSON; every object serializes), JSON

JSON

JSON , or JavaScript Object Notation, is a lightweight text-based open standard designed for human-readable data interchange. It is derived from the JavaScript scripting language for representing simple data structures and associative arrays, called objects...

, OGDL

OGDL

OGDL , is a "structured textual format that represents information in the form of graphs, where the nodes are strings and the arcs or edges are spaces or indentation."...

, Simple Declarative Language

Simple Declarative Language

The Simple Declarative Language is a cross-platform declarative programming language used for defining basic data structures such as lists, maps, and trees of typed data in a compact, easy to read representation....

and YAML

YAML

YAML is a human-readable data serialization format that takes concepts from programming languages such as C, Perl, and Python, and ideas from XML and the data format of electronic mail . YAML was first proposed by Clark Evans in 2001, who designed it together with Ingy döt Net and Oren Ben-Kiki...

Comparison of language features

Comparing language features
Language	Implementation language or platf.	HTML import tool	class attribute	id attribute	Exportable formats	License
Asciidoc AsciiDoc AsciiDoc is a lightweight markup language. It requires the installation of a special AsciiDoc "converter program" that can convert AsciiDoc documents to XHTML, DocBook or HTML. DocBook in turn can be converted to other formats such as PDF, TeX, Unix manpages and many more using the tool A2X which...	Python Python (programming language) Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...				XHTML XHTML XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written.... , LaTeX LaTeX LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to... , PDF, DocBook DocBook DocBook is a semantic markup language for technical documentation. It was originally intended for writing technical documents related to computer hardware and software but it can be used for any other sort of documentation.... , EPUB EPUB EPUB is a free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum... , Man page, etc.	GNU GPL
BBCode BBCode BBCode or Bulletin Board Code is a lightweight markup language used to format posts in many message boards. The available tags are usually indicated by square brackets surrounding a keyword, and they are parsed by the message board system before being translated into a markup language that web...	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... , PHP PHP PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document... , C#				HTML HTML HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages.... , XHTML XHTML XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....	Public Domain Public domain Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
Creole Creole (markup) Creole is a lightweight markup language for formatting wikitext, aimed at being a common markup language for wikis, enabling and simplifying the transfer of content between different wiki engines....	PHP PHP PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document... , Python Python (programming language) Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive... , Ruby Ruby (programming language) Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto... , JavaScript JavaScript JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....				Depends on impl.	CC-by-SA 1.0
deplate	Ruby Ruby (programming language) Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...				HTML HTML HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages.... , LaTeX LaTeX LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to... , DocBook DocBook DocBook is a semantic markup language for technical documentation. It was originally intended for writing technical documents related to computer hardware and software but it can be used for any other sort of documentation.... , plain text	GPL
Markdown Markdown Markdown is a lightweight markup language, originally created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz allowing people "to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML "...	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... (originally), C C (programming language) C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system.... , Python Python (programming language) Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive... , JavaScript JavaScript JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.... , Haskell Haskell (programming language) Haskell is a standardized, general-purpose purely functional programming language, with non-strict semantics and strong static typing. It is named after logician Haskell Curry. In Haskell, "a function is a first-class citizen" of the programming language. As a functional programming language, the... , Ruby Ruby (programming language) Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto... , C#, Java Java (programming language) Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities... , PHP PHP PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document... . Features are implementation dependent.				HTML HTML HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages.... originally; depending on the implementation, also LaTeX LaTeX LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to... , RTF RTF RTF may stand for:* Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française, France's national public broadcasting organization between 1949 and 1964* Reader talks first, in RFID, the situation where the interrogator or reader initiates the session with the RFID tag... , PDF, OpenDocument OpenDocument The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents.... , DocBook DocBook DocBook is a semantic markup language for technical documentation. It was originally intended for writing technical documents related to computer hardware and software but it can be used for any other sort of documentation.... , EPUB EPUB EPUB is a free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum... , MediaWiki MediaWiki MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites... , ReStructuredText ReStructuredText reStructuredText is a lightweight markup language intended to be highly readable in source format. Its formal name indicates that it is a "revised, reworked, and reinterpreted StructuredText."... , Man page, S5 (file format), etc.	BSD-style & GPL (both)
Markdown Extra Markdown Extra Markdown Extra is a lightweight markup language based on Markdown, which implements some added features currently not available with plain Markdown syntax.It adds the following features to Markdown:* Inline HTML...	PHP PHP PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document... (originally), Python Python (programming language) Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive... , Ruby Ruby (programming language) Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...				XHTML XHTML XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....	BSD-style & GPL (both)
MediaWiki MediaWiki MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...	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... , PHP PHP PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...				XHTML XHTML XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....	GNU GPL
Org-mode Org-mode Org-mode is an editing mode in the text editor Emacs which supports the editing of plain text hierarchical documents. It has specific support for a number of different use cases, such as writing to-do lists, project planning, and writing web pages...	Emacs Lisp Emacs Lisp Emacs Lisp is a dialect of the Lisp programming language used by the GNU Emacs and XEmacs text editors . It is used for implementing most of the editing functionality built into Emacs, the remainder being written in C... , Ruby Ruby (programming language) Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto... (parser only), 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...	?	?	?	Plain text Plain text In computing, plain text is the contents of an ordinary sequential file readable as textual material without much processing, usually opposed to formatted text.... , HTML HTML HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages.... , LaTeX LaTeX LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to... , PDF, DocBook DocBook DocBook is a semantic markup language for technical documentation. It was originally intended for writing technical documents related to computer hardware and software but it can be used for any other sort of documentation.... , TaskJuggler TaskJuggler TaskJuggler is GPL-licensed project management software that runs under the Linux and Unix operating systems and is programmed in C++ using the Qt toolkit and KDE libraries. The TaskJuggler Project was started in 2001 by Chris Schläger. Early releases provided a command line tool that generated... , Freemind FreeMind FreeMind is a free mind mapping application written in Java. FreeMind is licensed under the GNU General Public License. It provides extensive export capabilities. It runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X via the Java Runtime Environment.... , XOXO XOXO XOXO is an XML microformat for outlines built on top of XHTML. Developed by several authors as an attempt to reuse XHTML building blocks instead of inventing unnecessary new XML elements/attributes, XOXO is based on existing conventions for publishing outlines, lists, and blogrolls on the Web.The... , iCalendar ICalendar iCalendar is a computer file format which allows Internet users to send meeting requests and tasks to other Internet users, via email, or sharing files with an extension of .ics...	GPL
PmWiki PmWiki PmWiki is wiki software written by Patrick R. Michaud in the PHP programming language. It is free software, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.-Design focus:...	PHP PHP PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...				XHTML XHTML XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written.... 1.0 Transitional	GNU GPL
POD Plain Old Documentation Plain Old Documentation, abbreviated pod, is a lightweight markup language used to document the Perl programming language.-Design:pod is designed to be a simple, clean language with just enough syntax to be useful. It purposefully does not include mechanisms for fonts, images, colors or tables...	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...	?	?	?	HTML HTML HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages.... , XHTML XHTML XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written.... , XML XML Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards.... , Man page, LaTeX LaTeX LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to... , plain text Plain text In computing, plain text is the contents of an ordinary sequential file readable as textual material without much processing, usually opposed to formatted text.... , RTF RTF RTF may stand for:* Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française, France's national public broadcasting organization between 1949 and 1964* Reader talks first, in RFID, the situation where the interrogator or reader initiates the session with the RFID tag... , DocBook DocBook DocBook is a semantic markup language for technical documentation. It was originally intended for writing technical documents related to computer hardware and software but it can be used for any other sort of documentation....	Artistic License Artistic License The Artistic License refers most commonly to the original Artistic License , a software license used for certain free and open source software packages, most notably the standard Perl implementation and most CPAN modules, which are dual-licensed under the Artistic License and the GNU General Public... , Perl's license
reStructuredText ReStructuredText reStructuredText is a lightweight markup language intended to be highly readable in source format. Its formal name indicates that it is a "revised, reworked, and reinterpreted StructuredText."...	Python Python (programming language) Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive... , Haskell Haskell (programming language) Haskell is a standardized, general-purpose purely functional programming language, with non-strict semantics and strong static typing. It is named after logician Haskell Curry. In Haskell, "a function is a first-class citizen" of the programming language. As a functional programming language, the... , Java Java (programming language) Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities... ,			auto	LaTeX LaTeX LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to... , XML XML Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards.... , Man page, HTML HTML HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages.... (w3c valid), PDF, S5 (file format), ODF ODF ODF may be an acronym for:* OpenDocument format, a standard for electronic office documents** OpenDocument Fellowship, a volunteer organisation with members around the world to promote the use and development of the OpenDocument format....	Public Domain Public domain Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
Textile Textile (markup language) Textile is a lightweight markup language originally developed by Dean Allen and billed as a "humane Web text generator". Textile converts its marked-up text input to valid, well-formed XHTML and also inserts character entity references for apostrophes, opening and closing single and double...	PHP PHP PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document... , Java Java (programming language) Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities... , 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... , Python Python (programming language) Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive... , Ruby Ruby (programming language) Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto... , ASP Active Server Pages Active Server Pages , also known as Classic ASP or ASP Classic, was Microsoft's first server-side script engine for dynamically-generated Web pages. Initially released as an add-on to Internet Information Services via the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack Active Server Pages (ASP), also known as Classic... , C#				XHTML XHTML XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....	Textile License
Texy	PHP PHP PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document... , C#; Java Java (programming language) Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities... in progress				XHTML XHTML XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written.... or HTML HTML HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....	GNU GPL v2 License
Txt2tags Txt2tags txt2tags is a document generator software that uses a lightweight markup language. txt2tags is free software under GNU General Public License....	Python Python (programming language) Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...	?	?	?	HTML HTML HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages.... , XHTML XHTML XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written.... , SGML, Creole Creole (markup) Creole is a lightweight markup language for formatting wikitext, aimed at being a common markup language for wikis, enabling and simplifying the transfer of content between different wiki engines.... , Asciidoc AsciiDoc AsciiDoc is a lightweight markup language. It requires the installation of a special AsciiDoc "converter program" that can convert AsciiDoc documents to XHTML, DocBook or HTML. DocBook in turn can be converted to other formats such as PDF, TeX, Unix manpages and many more using the tool A2X which... , MediaWiki/Wikipedia, MoinMoin MoinMoin MoinMoin is a wiki engine implemented in Python, initially based on the PikiPiki wiki engine. The MoinMoin code is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2, or any later version .A number of organizations use MoinMoin to run public wikis,... , PmWiki PmWiki PmWiki is wiki software written by Patrick R. Michaud in the PHP programming language. It is free software, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.-Design focus:... , DokuWiki DokuWiki DokuWiki is a wiki application aimed at small companies’ documentation needs. DokuWiki is licensed under GPL 2 and written in the programming language PHP. It works on plain text files and thus needs no database. Its syntax is similar to the one used by MediaWiki.-History:DokuWiki was created by... , Google Code Wiki Google Code Google Code is Google's site for developer tools, APIs and technical resources. The site contains documentation on using Google developer tools and APIs—including discussion groups and blogs for developers using Google's developer products.... , LaTeX LaTeX LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to... , roff Roff roff was the first Unix text-formatting computer program, the most important application run on the first machine specifically purchased to run UNIX, and a predecessor of the nroff and troff document processing systems.... , Man page, MagicPoint MagicPoint MagicPoint is one of several open source presentation programs, often used to produce slides for conferences. Unlike most presentation programs, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, where a GUI is used to create slides, MagicPoint slides are created by writing text files using a simple markup language... , Lout, PageMaker, ASCII Art ASCII art ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters... and Plain-text	GPL

Text/font-face formatting

Comparing text formatting syntax
Language	Bold	Italic	Monospace (teletype)	Notes
AsciiDoc AsciiDoc AsciiDoc is a lightweight markup language. It requires the installation of a special AsciiDoc "converter program" that can convert AsciiDoc documents to XHTML, DocBook or HTML. DocBook in turn can be converted to other formats such as PDF, TeX, Unix manpages and many more using the tool A2X which...	`bold text`	`_italic text_`	`+monospace text+`	Can double operators to ignore special characters (for example `bold _text` yields bold _text).
BBCode BBCode BBCode or Bulletin Board Code is a lightweight markup language used to format posts in many message boards. The available tags are usually indicated by square brackets surrounding a keyword, and they are parsed by the message board system before being translated into a markup language that web...	`[b]bold text[/b]`	`[i]italic text[/i]`	`[code]monospace text[/code]`	Formatting works across line breaks.
Creole Creole (markup) Creole is a lightweight markup language for formatting wikitext, aimed at being a common markup language for wikis, enabling and simplifying the transfer of content between different wiki engines....	`bold text`	`//italic text//`		Triple curly braces are for nowiki which is optionally monospace in Creole (the choice of the implementor). Future Creole additions may introduce double hash marks (##) for monospace.
deplate	`{text style=bold: bold text}`	`__emphasized text__`	`monospace text`	deplate discourages visual formatting. Users who want to format text in a particular style have to define style classes in the given output format (CSS CSS -Computing:Cascading Style Sheets, a language used to describe the style of document presentations in web developmentCentral Structure Store in the PHIGS 3D API*Closed source software, software that is not distributed with source code... , LaTeX LaTeX LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to... ). By default, emphasized text is formatted in italics.
Markdown Markdown Markdown is a lightweight markup language, originally created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz allowing people "to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML "...	`bold text` or `__bold text__`	`italic text` or `_italic text_`	`Non-monospace text` `monospace text` `more monospace text` Inline `monospaced` text.	Markdown doesn't use bold and italic tags, but rather `em` (typically italic) and `strong` (typically bold) tags. Monospace text is created by indenting that line 4 spaces or one tab character, or enclosing text in backticks: `monospaces`.
MediaWiki MediaWiki MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...	`bold text`	`italic text`	`monospace text`
Org-mode Org-mode Org-mode is an editing mode in the text editor Emacs which supports the editing of plain text hierarchical documents. It has specific support for a number of different use cases, such as writing to-do lists, project planning, and writing web pages...	`bold text`	`/italic text/`	`=code= or ~verbatim~`	`_underlined_ +strike-through+`
PmWiki PmWiki PmWiki is wiki software written by Patrick R. Michaud in the PHP programming language. It is free software, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.-Design focus:...	`bold text`	`italic text`	`@@monospace text@@`
POD Plain Old Documentation Plain Old Documentation, abbreviated pod, is a lightweight markup language used to document the Perl programming language.-Design:pod is designed to be a simple, clean language with just enough syntax to be useful. It purposefully does not include mechanisms for fonts, images, colors or tables...	`B`	`I`	`C`	Indented text is also shown as monospaced code.
reStructuredText ReStructuredText reStructuredText is a lightweight markup language intended to be highly readable in source format. Its formal name indicates that it is a "revised, reworked, and reinterpreted StructuredText."...	`bold text`	`italic text`	``monospace text``
Setext 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 text is easily readable without any parsing or special software....	`bold text`	`~italic text~`
Textile Textile (markup language) Textile is a lightweight markup language originally developed by Dean Allen and billed as a "humane Web text generator". Textile converts its marked-up text input to valid, well-formed XHTML and also inserts character entity references for apostrophes, opening and closing single and double... Textile Syntax	`bold text` or `bold text`	`_italic text_` or `__italic text__`	`@monospace text@`	Textile uses `em` (typically italic) and `strong` (typically bold) tags on single symbols (and `code` tag), and `i` and `b` tags on double symbols.
Texy	`bold text`	`italic text` or `//italic text//`	`monospace text`	Texy uses by default `em` (typically italic) and `strong` (typically bold) tags. It is possible to configure library to use another tags.
txt2tags Txt2tags txt2tags is a document generator software that uses a lightweight markup language. txt2tags is free software under GNU General Public License....	`bold text`	`//italic text//`	``monospace text``	`__underlined__ --strike-through--`

Section headers

Comparing section header formatting
Language	Format	Notes
AsciiDoc AsciiDoc AsciiDoc is a lightweight markup language. It requires the installation of a special AsciiDoc "converter program" that can convert AsciiDoc documents to XHTML, DocBook or HTML. DocBook in turn can be converted to other formats such as PDF, TeX, Unix manpages and many more using the tool A2X which...	= Level 1>Header `Level 2 Header` `Level 3 Header` or Level 1 Header Level 2 Header -------------- Level 3 Header ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~	Close equals signs are optional (ignored if present). Level 1 is document/page title.
BBCode BBCode BBCode or Bulletin Board Code is a lightweight markup language used to format posts in many message boards. The available tags are usually indicated by square brackets surrounding a keyword, and they are parsed by the message board system before being translated into a markup language that web...		Does not support section headers
Creole Creole (markup) Creole is a lightweight markup language for formatting wikitext, aimed at being a common markup language for wikis, enabling and simplifying the transfer of content between different wiki engines....	`= Level 1 Header` `Level 2 Header` `Level 3 Header`	Close equals signs are optional (ignored if present).
deplate	`* Level 1 Header` ` Level 2 Header` `* Level 3 Header`	deplate's default markup is historically based on EmacsWiki, which in turn is the base for Org-mode Org-mode Org-mode is an editing mode in the text editor Emacs which supports the editing of plain text hierarchical documents. It has specific support for a number of different use cases, such as writing to-do lists, project planning, and writing web pages... .
Markdown Markdown Markdown is a lightweight markup language, originally created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz allowing people "to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML "...	# Level 1 >eader `## Level 2 Header` or Level 1 Header Level 2 Header --------------	You can optionally "close" the #-style headers with an equal number of #'s. The #-style headers support up to 6 levels. The = and - style headers support only the two shown.
MediaWiki MediaWiki MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...	`Level 2 Header` `Level 3 Header`	= is available for level 1 header, but its use is discouraged in Wikipedia (reserved for page title). More = are possible, up to 6.
Org-mode Org-mode Org-mode is an editing mode in the text editor Emacs which supports the editing of plain text hierarchical documents. It has specific support for a number of different use cases, such as writing to-do lists, project planning, and writing web pages...	Level 1 Header Level 2 Header Level 3 Header	>org-indent-view Level 1 Header * Level 2 Header * Level 3 Header
PmWiki PmWiki PmWiki is wiki software written by Patrick R. Michaud in the PHP programming language. It is free software, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.-Design focus:...	`!! Level 2 Header` `!!! Level 3 Header`	! is available for level 1 header, but its use is discouraged in PmWiki (used for the page title). More ! are possible, up to 6.
POD Plain Old Documentation Plain Old Documentation, abbreviated pod, is a lightweight markup language used to document the Perl programming language.-Design:pod is designed to be a simple, clean language with just enough syntax to be useful. It purposefully does not include mechanisms for fonts, images, colors or tables...	`=head1 Level 1 heading` `=head2 Level 2 heading`
reStructuredText ReStructuredText reStructuredText is a lightweight markup language intended to be highly readable in source format. Its formal name indicates that it is a "revised, reworked, and reinterpreted StructuredText."...	Chapter 1 Title Section 1.1 Title ----------------- Subsection 1.1.1 Title ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Section 1.2 Title ----------------- Chapter 2 Title	Any of the following characters can be used as the "underline": = - ` : ' " ~ ^ _ * + # < >. The same character must be used for the same indentation level and may not be used for a new indentation level.
Textile Textile (markup language) Textile is a lightweight markup language originally developed by Dean Allen and billed as a "humane Web text generator". Textile converts its marked-up text input to valid, well-formed XHTML and also inserts character entity references for apostrophes, opening and closing single and double...	`h1. Level 1 Header` `h2. Level 2 Header`	Up to 6 levels
Texy	### Level > Header `## Level 2 Header` or Level 1 Header Level 2 Header --------------	You can optionally "close" the #-style headers with an equal number of #'s. The #-style headers support up to 6 levels. The underlined style headers support four levels (### *** ----). Resulting absolute levels numbers are calculated dynamically. Optionally, less chars can denote higher header level.
txt2tags Txt2tags txt2tags is a document generator software that uses a lightweight markup language. txt2tags is free software under GNU General Public License....	`= Level 1 Header =` `Level 2 Header` `Level 3 Header`	Up to 6 levels. Using `+` characters instead of `=` characters creates numbered headers (the default being unnumbered).

Link syntax

Comparing link syntax
Language	Syntax	Notes
AsciiDoc AsciiDoc AsciiDoc is a lightweight markup language. It requires the installation of a special AsciiDoc "converter program" that can convert AsciiDoc documents to XHTML, DocBook or HTML. DocBook in turn can be converted to other formats such as PDF, TeX, Unix manpages and many more using the tool A2X which...	`http://www.example.com` `http://www.example.com[Link text]`
BBCode BBCode BBCode or Bulletin Board Code is a lightweight markup language used to format posts in many message boards. The available tags are usually indicated by square brackets surrounding a keyword, and they are parsed by the message board system before being translated into a markup language that web...	`[url]http://www.example.com[/url]` `[url=http://www.example.com]Link text[/url]`	Some BBCode implementations can auto-parse URLs as well and convert them to `a` elements.
Creole Creole (markup) Creole is a lightweight markup language for formatting wikitext, aimed at being a common markup language for wikis, enabling and simplifying the transfer of content between different wiki engines....	`Internal Page` `Display Text` `Link text` `InterWiki Link`	Free standing URL's are also detected.
deplate	`Internal Page` `Internal Page][Display Text` `http://www.example.com][Link text` `WikiCreole::Creole1.0][InterWiki Link`	Free standing URL's are also detected. The format is close to Org-mode Org-mode Org-mode is an editing mode in the text editor Emacs which supports the editing of plain text hierarchical documents. It has specific support for a number of different use cases, such as writing to-do lists, project planning, and writing web pages... -- see below.
Markdown Markdown Markdown is a lightweight markup language, originally created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz allowing people "to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML "...	or `[Link text](http://www.example.com "optional title attribute")` or `[Link text][id]` and elsewhere `[id]: http://www.example.com "optional title attribute"`	Allows for an optional `title` attribute.
MediaWiki MediaWiki MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...	`Internal page` `Displayed text` `http://www.example.com` `External link`	Wikitext can auto-parse URLs as well and convert them to `a` elements.
Org-mode Org-mode Org-mode is an editing mode in the text editor Emacs which supports the editing of plain text hierarchical documents. It has specific support for a number of different use cases, such as writing to-do lists, project planning, and writing web pages...	link format: `link][description or linkLink Link, links, linking may refer to:- Education :* Hands On Learning Australia, implements the HOL LiNK program -Music:* Link , an American R&B singer...` `My Target][Find my target` - text search in current file `#my-custom-id` - link to custom id `http://orgmode.org` - external link `http://orgmode.org][Org Mode - external link with description` `or /path/to/some/file or ./some/file` - file system links
PmWiki PmWiki PmWiki is wiki software written by Patrick R. Michaud in the PHP programming language. It is free software, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.-Design focus:...	`Internal page` `Displayed text` `http://www.pmwiki.org` `External link`	Wikitext can auto-parse URLs without spaces in them as well and convert them to `a` elements.
POD Plain Old Documentation Plain Old Documentation, abbreviated pod, is a lightweight markup language used to document the Perl programming language.-Design:pod is designed to be a simple, clean language with just enough syntax to be useful. It purposefully does not include mechanisms for fonts, images, colors or tables...	`L` `L` `L`	The core POD standard does not support external links with titles.
reStructuredText ReStructuredText reStructuredText is a lightweight markup language intended to be highly readable in source format. Its formal name indicates that it is a "revised, reworked, and reinterpreted StructuredText."...	`Link text `_ or `Linkname_` and elsewhere `.. _Linkname: http://example.com`
Textile Textile (markup language) Textile is a lightweight markup language originally developed by Dean Allen and billed as a "humane Web text generator". Textile converts its marked-up text input to valid, well-formed XHTML and also inserts character entity references for apostrophes, opening and closing single and double...	`"Link text (optional title attribute)":http://www.example.com` or `"Link text":alias` and elsewhere `[alias (optional title attribute)]http://www.example.com`	Allows for an optional `title` attribute.
Texy	`"Link text .(optional title)[opt. class or ID]{opt. style}":http://www.example.com` or `"Link text":alias` and elsewhere `[alias]: http://www.example.com .(optional title)[opt. class or ID]{opt. style}`	Texy! modifiers allows for an optional `title` attribute, CSS classes, ID, inline style and HTML element attributes. Example: "Link .(title)[class#id]{color: blue;rel:nofollow}"
txt2tags Txt2tags txt2tags is a document generator software that uses a lightweight markup language. txt2tags is free software under GNU General Public License....	`[Link text www.example.com]`	Txt2tags can auto-parse URLs as well and convert them to `a` elements. Also has support for targeting references within the same text, not just URLs.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Types

Comparison of language features

Text/font-face formatting

Section headers

Level 2 Header

Level 2 Header

Level 3 Header

Section 1.1 Title ----------------- Subsection 1.1.1 Title ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Section 1.2 Title ----------------- Chapter 2 Title

Section 1.1 Title
-----------------

Subsection 1.1.1 Title
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Section 1.2 Title
-----------------

Chapter 2 Title