Setext clients Oct 1994

Setext, the structure-enhanced text is a graphic markup language that employs unobtrusive punctuational and presentational means (layout) to add a sizeable, though limited, amount of logical document structure to any text content. Technically it belongs to the class of non-procedural, descriptive markup languages just like the HTML, but with one important diference: where most other markup languages are meant primarily to be parsed by software, setext is consciously optimized for reading by human eyes.

Formatted texts, also called 'setexts', can therefore be read using ANY text editor in existence and, unlike HTML (and most other encoded documents) do not require a browser in order to be read in the usual, linear fashion. However, if read with a setext browser it will usually provide additional services such as outlining, a clickable index created dynamically in real time, richtext emphasis and other enhancements. To learn more about setext: the syntax, method, encoding philosophy and everything, please visit:

          http://www.bsdi.com/setext/

Setext clients

sv, a setext viewer for Unix by Akif Eyler compiles MAINLY under Sun 4.x. 'Mainly' means it may or may not compile cleanly elsewhere... a version just about running under Linux is known to exist. The sv may be found at the following address (good accessibility!), where there also are setext clients/ browsers for DOS/Windows and Macintosh:
```
          The EFF Archive in Washington, DC, USA 
```
Other clients, for Macintosh and DOS/Windows may be found at the Info-Mac, sumex-aim.stanford.edu, the Mac.Archive.Umich.EDU and their mirror sites. Example:
```
          Info-Mac [& mirrors]: text/setext-viewer-05-unix.uu
```
Supposedly there is also a DOS Dart hypertext browser by Ted Husted, which incorporates a basic setext mode.

Latest versions of all the browsers from Akif Eyler's workbench is in Ankara, Turkey, so beware of possible slow links!

Please note that the sv represents but one rendering of the setext and then one that is hardly representative of its capabilities. As with the HTML, the presentation of marked-up datastream is the function and the responsibility of a client... the better the client, the higher the level of enhancement of setexts' unobtrusively-encoded structure in plaintext documents. Clearly, a much better setext client for Unix is needed, one that implements setext hypertext linkage (yes, Mathilda), and compiles cleanly everywhere (hint, hint).

  Latest versions in ftp://ftp.bilkent.edu.tr/pub/Local/setext/
  Jul 28 06:36  Macintosh      222 Kb  easy-view-250.hqx 
  Jun  6 10:17                  35 Kb  setext-docs.hqx 
  Oct  5 06:42  DOS/Windows     41 Kb  EV1-6.ZIP 
  Apr  5  1994                  31 Kb  EV1-3.ZIP 
  Jul 28 07:55  Unix/Sun 4.x     7 Kb  sv-05.tar.z 
  Apr 13  1994  text/x-setext   11 Kb  EV-in-DC.etx 
  Apr 13  1994  text/html       12 Kb  EV-in-DC.html 
                                       a paper about the EasyView 
                                       presented at a hypertext 
                                       workshop in Washington, DC.

Ready to configure the 'sv'?

Happy structure-enhanced browsing!

Comments, preferably with a reference to the URL, are welcomed:

Ian Feldman ianf@eleet.mimuw.edu.pl