.txt

The killer use case for personal computers is text editing.

Typesetting, typewriting, handwriting – these produce text, but they can't edit.

Sure, computers can do a lot of things. Games, maths, file management. But the magic lies in .txt files. Plain text – the Platonic ideal of a file, a foundational discovery that justifies the utility of a home computer.

The internet was built by plain text. HTML that you can inspect, copy, paste, steal, and – let's not forget – edit. Uncompiled, uncompressed, unadulterated. Then we introduced build processes and minification, and the magic was lost.

When I was sixteen (back in those olden days of digital sorcery) I was an active member of hacking and phreaking forums. These communities understood the magic of .txt files. We would create and distribute them like currency, each one an idealistic representation of this nacent technology, each one capable of unearthing transcendant secrets. They were dangerous.

There was a format to these .txt files – often called "textfiles". They expected a monospace font, the default setting for plain text editors like Notepad and Text Edit, with a 72 character line wrap. They often started with ASCII art – a graffiti tag byline created with letters, numbers, and special characters – an artform enabled by the unassuming .txt file (and which inspired the DfF logo). The language was simple, instructional, with a smattering of teenage angst, and a sarcastic petition to only use the knowledge for good, not evil.

Here's one I made in 2002: regedit.txt. There's also a fantastic collection over at textfiles.com.

Plain text powers the world. It's JSON, YAML, XML, SVG, CSV. It's one step removed from every computer program written since assembly.

Plain text evolved a sensible, functional mutation with the invention of the .md file (I had the opportunity to interview John Gruber, the creator of Markdown, on Crossword). Formatting conventions were adopted, and the plain text file was suddenly capable of headings, bold, italics, and links. It was so obvious! The Markdown standard was quickly adopted, and became supported almost everywhere. It even powers this blog.

So, here's to the humble plain text file! You remind us that magic is often hidden within the mundane.