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Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

wilfred.me.uk

61–70 of 99 posts

Re: Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

#61
post #46

Does anyone else prefer txt2tags [1]? It also works. [1] http://txt2tags.org/features.html

I do; of all the lightweight markup languages, it seems like only txt2tags has a sane representation of HTML links. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_markup_language#Lin...

Re: Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

#62
post #7
post #3

Part of the problem is that people don't really grok the point of Markdown. There's a reason it doesn't support tables, or a syntax for making the kind of language used in a code snippet. The point of Markdown is to mimic the conventions of ASCII-text email, both to make writing it as natural as possible, and to make Markdown pleasant to read in both ASCII and HTML. If you want something more featureful than Markdown…

>There's a reason it doesn't support tables I don't see how the inclusion of tables violates the ascii-like readability of markdown. Github has implemented a table syntax that is natural to read/write and makes it easy to include tables in your document. Example: https://github.com/Defconbots/2015_target/blob/master/hw/boa...

Natural to write? This:

    |Name            |Quantity|Part Number         |Distributor|
    |:--------------:|:------:|:------------------:|:---------:|
    |BAT1, BAT2, BAT3|3       |534-082             |Mouser     |
is not "natural to write"

Re: Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At first, |-----+-------| | Key | Value | |-----+-------| | 00 | foo | | 01 | bar | |-----+-------| becomes |-----+-------| | Key | Value | |-----+-------| | 00 | foo | | 01 | bar | | 02 | much longer | |-----+-------| but as soon as I hit TAB, it turns in to: |-----+-------------| | Key | Value | |-----+-------------| | 00 | foo | | 01 | bar | | 02 | much longer | |-----+-------------| There's probably a way to make…

OK. I think where I'm going is that for anyone who doesn't use emacs org-mode, ASCII tables are a major PITA to edit. I didn't know if emacs used a different underlying syntax (that markdown could borrow), but it doesn't.

Well, anything is a major PITA for someone who doesn't use emacs…

More seriously, ASCII tables are always a major pain to edit, without the proper tools (like emacs—and I'd not be at all surprised if there's something for vim and/or Sublime Text too). That's no reason to avoid them; they are useful.

Re: Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

#64
post #60
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Are we cavemen? Well, essentially, yes. What do you suggest we use, then?

One of those text-entry boxes with buttons for emphasis, list items, etc.

Hacker News seems to have a weird fetish for its 'minimalist' UI ... probably because it has a higher than typical ratio of users who spend time behind a terminal, and due to some underlying belief that the lack of bells and whistles keeps the normies away. If they added a rich text editor there would probably be a riot.

But to be fair, at least markdown is a lot cleaner than bbcode.

Re: Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

#65
post #58

Markdown and all the other Markdown-esque formats need to be consigned to the history books. No really. It is almost 2015 and we are still typing symbols on each side of words in text boxes when we want to emphasize something. Are we cavemen? (Following was added after initial posting) Technology has moved on. We should no longer need to remember which combination of magic symbols we need to make a bulleted list or w…

> It is almost 2015 and we are still typing symbols on each side of words in text boxes when we want to emphasize something.

That's called markup. It's what HTML is; it's what any plain-text format is. And it's a good thing: it's interchangeable and archiveable.

Re: Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

#66
post #60
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Are we cavemen? Well, essentially, yes. What do you suggest we use, then?

One of those text-entry boxes with buttons for emphasis, list items, etc.

There are in fact programs that don't run in the browser.

Schocking, I know. But wait, there's more! Some programs don't even use Javascript!

Re: Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

#67
post #46

Does anyone else prefer txt2tags [1]? It also works. [1] http://txt2tags.org/features.html

I do; of all the lightweight markup languages, it seems like only txt2tags has a sane representation of HTML links. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_markup_language#Lin...

Ugh, that's the syntax of TVTropes. What a mess, I never know if the title comes before or after the link, and whether to wrap with 1 or 2 square braces.

Re: Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

#68
post #65
post #58

Markdown and all the other Markdown-esque formats need to be consigned to the history books. No really. It is almost 2015 and we are still typing symbols on each side of words in text boxes when we want to emphasize something. Are we cavemen? (Following was added after initial posting) Technology has moved on. We should no longer need to remember which combination of magic symbols we need to make a bulleted list or w…

> It is almost 2015 and we are still typing symbols on each side of words in text boxes when we want to emphasize something. That's called markup. It's what HTML is; it's what any plain-text format is. And it's a good thing: it's interchangeable and archiveable.

HTML is great, mostly because it actually does the job and knows its place.

Markdown and their ilk are all trying to be sorta-not-quite-HTML, but fail precisely because they are not HTML.

Re: Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

#69
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of those text-entry boxes with buttons for emphasis, list items, etc.

There are in fact programs that don't run in the browser. Schocking, I know. But wait, there's more! Some programs don't even use Javascript!

Your point?

Re: Why Markdown Is Not My Favourite Language (2012)

#70
post #64
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of those text-entry boxes with buttons for emphasis, list items, etc.

Hacker News seems to have a weird fetish for its 'minimalist' UI ... probably because it has a higher than typical ratio of users who spend time behind a terminal, and due to some underlying belief that the lack of bells and whistles keeps the normies away. If they added a rich text editor there would probably be a riot. But to be fair, at least markdown is a lot cleaner than bbcode.

I should probably point out before someone else does, that my own blog, hackensplat.com, is one of those very websites I'm complaining about. In my defence, its just a blogger.com hosted site and I'm using their comment system.

I want forms to either accept plain text and allow angle brackets and stars, or accept HTML and provide an interface that hides the HTML tags. We only need Markdown and their ilk for the last generation of websites (including mine) that are behind the times.

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