textthere

TextThere is a hypothetical lightweight markup language and data interchange format designed for annotating and linking plain text. It aims to combine human readability with simple machine parseability, enabling authors to attach metadata, cross-references, and annotations without heavy XML-like syntax.

TextThere organizes content into blocks of text with optional metadata fields. Annotations can be inline or block-level and may reference other blocks through anchors. Metadata uses simple key-value pairs, such as author, date, and tags. The syntax prioritizes minimal punctuation and clear separation between content and metadata, making it approachable for editors, academic researchers, and documentation teams. The format emphasizes backward compatibility with common plain-text workflows and can be parsed by small, dependency-free tools.

TextThere originated from discussions within the TextThere Collective in the late 2010s as an alternative to more verbose markup languages. Its goals include human readability, ease of editing with plain-text tools, and straightforward integration with version control. The design has been influenced by Markdown for readability and YAML for metadata representation, while avoiding the complexity of XML or RDF.

Usage and ecosystem: It has been used in digital humanities projects, technical documentation, and lightweight publishing workflows. Several open-source libraries and converters exist for different languages, and there are community-driven references and tutorials. See also Markdown, YAML, XML.