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You seem to miss the idea of Markdown. In its original form it was simply an aid to get static html from human readable text (<- that there is the basis for md

You seem to miss the idea of Markdown. In its original form it was simply an aid to get static html from human readable text (<- that there is the basis for md). For better or worse, it's been forked a few times, adding new abilities or even in efforts to make it stricter. The main idea of readability still applies. I could hand over a markdown formatted txt file to someone and they'd probably read it just fine, whether they could code or not. Html in plain-text form, though? Not sure that would work. It has quirks, but the whole I really like it. I've used it for writing guides, taking notes... Maybe even for web content at some point.

dlandis 9y ago
If you limited yourself to a small set of HTML though and kept the structure simple, then it probably wouldn't be much less readable than a Markdown document.
- blipmusic 9y ago
 How simple, though...? # title - item1 - item2 some paragraph with an *italic* word -> <html> <body> <h1>title</h1> <ul> <li>item1</li> <li>item2</li> </ul> some paragraph with an italic word </body> </html>
 - Chiguire 9y ago
 You could have simplified that to: <title>title</title> <ul> <li>item1</li> <li>item2</li> </ul> some paragraph with an italic word No need for body and html element, you can inject that afterwards. I think the most important aspect of markdown is not the syntax but the standardisation of styles. No needing to worry about how to make it look nice it's not only time saving but very helpful when reading hundreds of other people manuals.
 - blipmusic 9y ago
 Fair enough and I agree on the styles. I usually take my notes in md whether I intend to render or not, just because I know I can render if necessary.
 - dheera 9y ago
 Really? The above HTML will look very readable if you just fire it up in a web browser. And if we all agreed on the location of an optional CSS file (e.g. ~/.default.css) anyone would be able to customize how all their documentation looks. It would be totally optional and just make semantically-good HTML go from readable to super-pretty per-user custom themes. Totally optional -- if you don't have it, you'll still have something extremely readable, well more readable than Markdown. <html> <head> <link rel="stylesheet" href="~/.default.css"> </head> ... your documentation goes here ... </html> The best part? If you don't think this is readable, just double-click and open the thing in a plain-old web browser and it'll be more readable than Markdown.
 - accordionclown 9y ago
 you have a point. but you're just talking about _reading_... when it comes to typing, and especially _editing,_ all that markup cruft becomes a distraction (at best), and usually much more like an irritating obstacle. and you glossed over the ’ which needs to sit in the middle of every contraction. like this: “if you don’t have it, you’ll still have something...” ick. no thank you.
 dheera 9y ago
 "if you don't have it, you'll still have something ..." is perfectly fine in HTML. If you for whatever reason believe left and right quotes should make a difference, “if you don’t have it, you’ll still have something ...” will be fine in HTML as well. You don't need awful escape sequences for these. Browsers will render them just fine.
 - accordionclown 9y ago
 it looks a heckuva lot more simple to me. and clear. and that's just from an "easy on the eyes" standpoint. when i also think about actually typing all those unnecessary angle-brackets, i break out in hives. it's not "difficult". but it's terribly tedious. but you should stick with what you like... :+)

dlandis 9y ago

If you limited yourself to a small set of HTML though and kept the structure simple, then it probably wouldn't be much less readable than a Markdown document.

blipmusic 9y ago
How simple, though...? # title - item1 - item2 some paragraph with an *italic* word -> <html> <body> <h1>title</h1> <ul> <li>item1</li> <li>item2</li> </ul> some paragraph with an italic word </body> </html>
- Chiguire 9y ago
 You could have simplified that to: <title>title</title> <ul> <li>item1</li> <li>item2</li> </ul> some paragraph with an italic word No need for body and html element, you can inject that afterwards. I think the most important aspect of markdown is not the syntax but the standardisation of styles. No needing to worry about how to make it look nice it's not only time saving but very helpful when reading hundreds of other people manuals.
 - blipmusic 9y ago
 Fair enough and I agree on the styles. I usually take my notes in md whether I intend to render or not, just because I know I can render if necessary.
 - dheera 9y ago
 Really? The above HTML will look very readable if you just fire it up in a web browser. And if we all agreed on the location of an optional CSS file (e.g. ~/.default.css) anyone would be able to customize how all their documentation looks. It would be totally optional and just make semantically-good HTML go from readable to super-pretty per-user custom themes. Totally optional -- if you don't have it, you'll still have something extremely readable, well more readable than Markdown. <html> <head> <link rel="stylesheet" href="~/.default.css"> </head> ... your documentation goes here ... </html> The best part? If you don't think this is readable, just double-click and open the thing in a plain-old web browser and it'll be more readable than Markdown.
 - accordionclown 9y ago
 you have a point. but you're just talking about _reading_... when it comes to typing, and especially _editing,_ all that markup cruft becomes a distraction (at best), and usually much more like an irritating obstacle. and you glossed over the ’ which needs to sit in the middle of every contraction. like this: “if you don’t have it, you’ll still have something...” ick. no thank you.
 - dheera 9y ago
 "if you don't have it, you'll still have something ..." is perfectly fine in HTML. If you for whatever reason believe left and right quotes should make a difference, “if you don’t have it, you’ll still have something ...” will be fine in HTML as well. You don't need awful escape sequences for these. Browsers will render them just fine.
- accordionclown 9y ago
 it looks a heckuva lot more simple to me. and clear. and that's just from an "easy on the eyes" standpoint. when i also think about actually typing all those unnecessary angle-brackets, i break out in hives. it's not "difficult". but it's terribly tedious. but you should stick with what you like... :+)