# SuperTXT, Simple Text, and More

type: Introduction
dateModified: 2023-11-01T10:47:03Z^^^DateTime

It's just a small set of conventions, built with established technologies, that unleashes a new world of interaction.

Simple text files, such as this one, have a number of really great properties:

Very light-weight 🪶
Works great with a very wide variety of tools and systems 🔨
Read and written by both human 🧍 and machine 🖥️
Future resistant 🔮

Recent advancements have made things even better. The standardization of the line terminators eliminates entire classes of interoperability problems. Introduction of Unicode UTF-8 encoding opens the format to a vast number of symbols in a largely transparent way. Lightweight markup languages demonstrated that conventions can be used to create beautiful representations without sacrificing the legibility of the source code.

SuperTXT builds on this foundation with new principles:

Treat the text as readable on its own, not exclusively through a secondary representation, such as a browser
Don't hide things from the reader
Align with mature tools and systems
Embrace the power of network effects
Empower readers to work with content in their own way
Enable better machine interactions within the medium
Unlock hosting and hyper-linking capabilities

Do you want to learn more? A good place to start is the [:@getting started] guide.

## News

2023-10-22: Announcing [:@WA-Nine] SuperTXT's first endeavour into WebAssembly
2023-08-26: Refresh of the browsing article
2023-08-11: Created initial project logo using svgbob format
2023-07-23: Added a new article [:@Options, Arguments, and Tables] an alternative to csv/tsv
2023-04-23: Site refresh
2023-04-12: Brsh now supports emojis and the site has some to demonstrate them
2023-03-25: Created a homebrew tap to help make installation easier
2023-03-19: Released a simple ssh/supertxt server called conserv.
2023-03-15: Added a web adapter called deserv to host supertxt content via the web. The supertxt.net website now uses it for a nicer zero-install experience.
2023-03-04: Added pathname2 to [:@specs] formalizing paths used in tools like git, scp, and cats
2023-02-22: Wikipedia integration added to cats, srch, and brsh using a [:@site-specific command]
2023-01-21: Released the source for the srch tool in the [:@SuperTXT Integrations] repo
2023-01-09: Add the st-int git repo showcasing the Browsing Shell (brsh)
2022-12-11: Add conventional commenting to the site for providing feedback on this content.
2022-12-03: Update cats to user an available pager, updated the README on reflection
2022-11-27: Add links for [:@known-hosts] and [:@license]
2022-11-27: Add cats tool for simple reading of remote documents

## Articles

Here are some places to immerse yourself in this realm.

→ (getting started) start.s.txt

→ (site-specific command) intro-to-ssc.s.txt

→ web-interop.s.txt

→ (Options, Arguments, and Tables) options-arguments-tables.s.txt

→ (WA-Nine) articles/2023-11-22-announcing-wanine.s.txt

Check out our log of articles here:

→ articles/index.s.txt

## Site Usage

If you're reading this site using your web browser, that's great. All of the web functions and more are also available via Secure SHell (SSH). You can browse this site in high fidelity over SSH with a little help from two tools: brsh, and [:@cats]. You'll need to generator yourself an encryption key first.

.sh

ssh-keygen # The defaults are usually fine and the passphrase can be empty

An easy way to get started is to use [:@homebrew] with the [:@homebrew tap] hosted here to install these tools.

.sh

brew tap supertxt/tap ssh://nobody@supertxt.net/git/st-brew
brew install supertxt/tap/cats supertxt/tap/brsh

From the browsing shell (brsh) you can navigate here using cats like this.

.sh

cats nobody@supertxt.net:

→ (homebrew) https://brew.sh

If you have the Go language tools installed here is another way to install commands.

.sh

go install supertxt.net/git/cats/cmd/cats@latest
go install supertxt.net/git/st-int/cmd/brsh@latest

This site doesn't require any special tools. You can use ssh from any shell (bash, zsh, brsh, or other Unix shell) like this:

.sh

ssh nobody@supertxt.net cat whats-sshla.s.txt # .s.txt

If you use [:@cats] the command is much simpler with a single pathname2 for the document, like what you would expect from other SSH tools.

.sh

cats nobody@supertxt.net:whats-sshla.s.txt

There are also git repositories here that can be cloned.

.sh

git clone nobody@supertxt.net:git/cats

Site search is available with the "srch" command.

.sh

ssh nobody@supertxt.net srch <<EOF
inline link
EOF

You can learn more about this site's built-in commands in the manual. Check out ccmnt (conventional comments) command for leaving feedback.

.sh

ssh nobody@supertxt.net man # Show list of available commands
ssh nobody@supertxt.net man git # Show available git commands

note: The "nobody" user is optional for this site, but recommended to prevent leaking of your user name.

## Specifications

This site contains a number of specifications used here, and can be used elsewhere too.

→ specs/index.s.txt

## Repositories

The following git repos are available here.

→ (cats) git/cats.s.txt

→ (SuperTXT Integrations) git/st-int.s.txt

→ (homebrew tap) git/st-brew.s.txt

## Other SSH Sites

→ (known-hosts) .ssh/known_hosts

## Trust

Some content on this site is signed, such as git commits. Here's the list of allowed signers.

→ (allowed-signers) .ssh/allowed_signers

## Legal

→ (license) LICENSE.txt

## Contact Us

email: supertxtnet@gmail.com

## Feedback

HAVE SOME FEEDBACK FOR US?

You can give us [:@conventional comments] on these documents. Here's how you can give this document some praise.

.sh

ssh nobody@supertxt.net ccmnt 00-intro.s.txt <<EOF
praise: Looks good
EOF

→ (conventional comments) https://conventionalcomments.org