STAR - Simple Text Annotation Restructured

STAR stands for Simple Text Annotation - Restructured. It is a simple semantic markup language for text that is:

• Open source
  
• Very simple
• Human readable/writeable
• Machine readable/writeable
• Structured - STAR documents have a schema
• STAR schema can contain semantics (XML schema do not)
• Transformable into XML, XHTML, PDF etc.
• Flexible - although it was developed initially for use cases, you may find that it has many other applications

STAR is based on structured text and restructured text. These are plain-text markup languages for HTML pages. This Plone site was created entirely using structured text.

However STAR is a semantic markup language. It uses the principles of structured and restructued text (but not their syntax) to create a simple semantic markup language with similar goals to XML. STAR focuses on the meaning of text rather than it's presentation.

Given that XML is a powerful semantic markup language, why do you need STAR?

The key reason is that the STAR tag language is much simpler, much easier to learn and much more convenient to use than XML.  STAR is truly human readable whereas XML... well - let's just say it's debatable. With STAR cost of entry is very low - anyone who can use a text editor can learn to write STAR documents in a couple of minutes and be productive. STAR documents have "no chrome" - you focus entirely on the content of the document not it's appearance. This is perfect for project documentation such as use cases, where you need to capture the essential information quickly and effectively, and then apply a consistent visual style. STAR developers can develop new schemas very rapidly because they are written in STAR syntax. This allows a truly agile approach to project (and other) documentation.

Although STAR is a simple, human friendly, structured language, it can readily be turned into full-blown XML and can utilize all of the rich XML technologies.

STAR is very flexible and comes with a set of tools for transforming STAR documents into XML, XHTML and PDF. It provides an easy way to get your project documents (especially use cases) into XML without needing a lot of tools or training.

Getting started with STAR

Download STAR from our Google Code project page here.

To get started with STAR, use the following links:

• Getting STAR set up - setting up your Python environment to run STAR
  

• Advantages of STAR - some bullet points to help you make the case for STAR in your project
  
• STAR syntax by example
• STAR document transformations - XML, XHTML, PDF and more
• STAR- future directions (we're in the process of updating this)

Supporting STAR

STAR is open source, and you can support STAR in two ways:

• Get involved in the development!
• Make a donation.

Contact us for details.