You want to add simple markup to plaintext and turn it into HTML.
Use RedCloth, written by "why the lucky stiff" and available as the RedCloth gem. It extends Rubys string class to support Textile markup: its to_html method converts Textile markup to HTML.
Heres a simple document:
require ubygems require edcloth text = RedCloth.new %{Who would ever write "HTML":http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/ markup directly? I mean, _who has the time_? Nobody, thats who: |_. Person |_. Has the time? | | Jake | No | | Alice | No | | Rodney | Not since the accident | } puts text.to_html #Who would ever write # <a href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/">HTML</a> # markup directly?
# #I mean, who has the time? Nobody, that’s who:
# #
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