Lightweight markup language - Definition and Overview

A lightweight markup language is a markup language that requires little overhead, or which is easy for a human to enter in a simple text editor, in comparison with HTML. Lightweight markup languages are used in applications where there is relatively little bandwidth and so conciseness is important.

Some languages are used for entry in web-based publishing, where the input interface is an HTML textarea like weblogs and wikis. The server software converts the input to a heavier markup language like HTML or XML.

Examples

• Epytext
• HDML
• ReStructuredText
• the WikiMedia markup
• Wireless Markup Language
• YAML
• Almost Free Text (http://www.maplefish.com/todd/aft.html)
• Markdown (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)
• Textile (http://textism.com/tools/textile/)