Text and attribute-based messaging is a useful technique for sharing information and services between
diverse application languages. The technique was made popular in Unix/Linux but is not exclusive to Unix/Linux. Characteristics include:
- The text message can be viewed as a discrete unit of text. It can be thought of as a file.
- The text is human-readable without special viewers or browsers other than a plane-jane text editor. (Although the meaning of the structure may be context-sensitive).
- Any data-structures used are relatively easy to parse.
- It is mostly declarative information rather than commands.
Examples include:
- Markup text or files, such as HTML or XML
- Comma-separated value files
- An HTTP message