How about an augmented form of plain text, where a SMALL MINORITY of special undisplayed characters invoke formatting options which can be utilized by consoles

How about an augmented form of plain text, where a SMALL MINORITY of special undisplayed characters invoke formatting options which can be utilized by consoles not much more powerful than dumb terminals. We could call it Hypertext . . . Could even give rise to a "markup language", we could call it HTML . . . Once you start going down that road it could be a slippery slope . . .