def htmlify(markup, options = {})
    options = { :only => [:emotes, :emphasis, :swatches, :profile_links, :http_links, :entities, :pants], :truncate => 45 }.merge(options)
    run = Array.new
    run << options[:only].to_a.dup
    run << options[:also].to_a.dup
    run.flatten!
    run.delete_if { |r| options[:except].to_a.flatten.include?(r) }

    # load emote index if it hasn't already been loaded
    if run.include?(:emotes)
      require 'emotes'
      @emoset ||= EmoteSet.from_s(IO.read("#{RAILS_ROOT}/public/images/ipb-emotes/index.txt")) if run.include?(:emotes)
      @emo_scan_len ||= @emoset.map { |i| i.triggers.map { |t| t.length }.max }.max
    end

    markup = StringScanner.new(markup.to_s)
    result = String.new

    while markup.rest?
      case
      when run.include?(:profile_links) && markup.scan(/\[-([0-9]+)-\]/)
        profile = Profile.find(markup[1].to_i, :select => 'id, name') rescue nil
        if profile
          result << link_to(profile.name, profile_url(:id => markup[1]))
        else
          result << content_tag('span', "[-Error, cannot find profile with id '#{markup[1]}'-]")
        end

      when run.include?(:swatches) && markup.scan(/\#([0-9A-F]{6,6}|[0-9A-F]{3,3})/)
        result << colour_swatch(markup.matched)

      when run.include?(:emphasis) && markup.scan(/([*_])(([a-z0-9].*?)?\S)\1/)
        result << '<em>' + htmlify(markup[2], :only => run, :except => [:emphasis, :pants, :paragraphs]) + '</em>'

      when run.include?(:emphasis) && markup.scan(/([*_]{2,2})(([a-z0-9].*?)?\S)\1/)
        result << '<strong>' + htmlify(markup[2], :only => run, :except => [:emphasis, :pants, :paragraphs]) + '</strong>'

      when run.include?(:emotes) && (emote = @emoset.start_match(markup.peek(@emo_scan_len)))
        result << emote.to_html(:style => ('vertical-align: middle; margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0px none;' if @inline_styles))
        markup.pointer += emote.trigger.length

      when run.include?(:http_links) && markup.scan(/<http:\/\/([a-z0-9\.]+(:[0-9]+)?\/[-_+$@.&*!\#\"\'()?,%a-z0-9\/]*)>/i)
        result << '<' + link_to(h(markup[1]), markup[1]) + '>'

      when run.include?(:entities) && markup.scan(/</)
        result << '<'
      when run.include?(:entities) && markup.scan(/>/)
        result << '>'
      when run.include?(:entities) && !run.include?(:pants) && markup.scan(/"/)
        result << '"'
      when run.include?(:entities) && !run.include?(:pants) && markup.scan(/'/)
        result << '&apos;'
      when run.include?(:entities) && markup.scan(/&/)
        result << '&'
      else
        # if none of this picks anything up, we send the character through to the result
        result << markup.getch
      end
    end

    result = pantsify(result) if run.include?(:pants)
    result = simple_format(result) if run.include?(:paragraphs) unless result.empty?

    return result
  end