Etch is both an executable binary that can be run, and a library that can be used in Rust programs.

Installing the command-line executable

Assuming you have Rust/Cargo installed, run this command in a terminal:

cargo install etch

It will make the etch command available in your PATH if you've allowed the PATH to be modified when installing Rust. cargo uninstall etch uninstalls.

Adding `etch` library as a dependency

Run this command in a terminal, in your project's directory:

cargo add etch

To add it manually, edit your project's Cargo.toml file and add to the [dependencies] section:

etch = "0.4.2"

The etch library will be automatically available globally. Read the etch library documentation.

Back to the crate overview.

Readme

Etch v0.4

Not just a text formatter, don't mark it down, etch it.

Syntax

Not too dissimilar from Markdown, simpler yet also more powerful:

# My Document

This is what etch text looks like!

[a]
You can tag entire blocks of text with a tag prefix, individual words[b]
with a tag suffix, or [entire spans of text][b] using square brackets.

#[a: .myClass]
#[b: @alt surprise alt text!]
#[c: @https://example.com]

And lastly, tags can be declared when you first reference them[d: .nice]
and the tag name is optional[.cool].

Documents can import other documents:

#import[my-document.etch]

Or other files as preformatted text:

[css]
#import[my-css-example.css]

Documents can contain custom metadata such as a title or description:

#meta[title: My Document]

Plugin API allows for transforming documents or injecting custom parsers.

use etch::Etch;
use etch::plugins::*;

let word_count = WordCountPlugin::new();
let etch = Etch::default()
    .with_plugin(word_count.clone())
    .with_document("my_document.etch");

println!("{:#?}", word_count);

Code syntax highlighting provided by the Syntect plugin.

Enable the syntect-plugin feature:

[dependencies]
etch = { version = "...", features = ["syntect-plugin"] }

And attach the plugin:

use etch::Etch;
use etch::plugins::*;

let etch = Etch::default()
    .with_plugin(SyntectPlugin::new())
    .with_document("my_document.etch");

Usage

use etch::Etch;
use etch::plugins::*;

fn main() {
    let metadata = MetadataPlugin::new();
    let word_count = WordCountPlugin::new();
    let etch = Etch::default()
        .with_plugin(metadata.clone())
        .with_plugin(word_count.clone())
        .with_plugin(SyntectPlugin::new())
        .with_plugin(WidowedWordsPlugin::new())
        .with_document("my_document.etch");

    println!("{:#?}", etch.render());
    println!("{:#?}", metadata);
    println!("{:#?}", word_count);
}

Installing the command-line executable

Adding etch library as a dependency

Adding `etch` library as a dependency