Editing Plain text (section)

==Usage==

The purpose of using plain text today is primarily independence from programs that require their very own special encoding or formatting or [[file format]]. Plain text files can be opened, read, and edited with ubiquitous [[text editor]]s and utilities.

A [[command-line interface]] allows people to give commands in plain text and get a response, also typically in plain text.

Many other computer programs are also capable of processing or creating plain text, such as countless programs in [[DOS]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[classic Mac OS]], and [[Unix]] and its kin; as well as web browsers (a few browsers such as [[Lynx (web browser)|Lynx]] and the [[Line Mode Browser]] produce only plain text for display) and other [[e-text]] readers.

Plain text files are almost universal in programming; a source code file containing instructions in a [[programming language]] is almost always a plain text file. Plain text is also commonly used for [[configuration file]]s, which are read for saved settings at the startup of a program.

Plain text is used for much [[e-mail]].

A [[comment (computer programming)|comment]], a "[[.txt]]" file, or a [[TXT Record]] generally contains only plain text (without formatting) intended for humans to read.

The best format for storing knowledge persistently is plain text, rather than some [[binary format]].<ref>
Andrew Hunt, David Thomas.
"[[The Pragmatic Programmer]]".
1999.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=5wBQEp6ruIAC Chapter 14: "The Power of Plain Text"].
p. 73.
</ref>