6 ms·

Pandoc is awesome for things like tables or code blocks. Here is a table in pandoc markdown: | Header 1 | header 2 | |-|-| | Column 1 | Column 2 |

by Tarean 9y ago

tincholio 9y ago
Thing is, if you're already looking to use e.g., Emacs, you'll be better off using org-mode instead of markdown. Same lightness of syntax, tens of times the functionality (including much better tables, which you can use directly from a TeX document, as well, via radio tables). Editing ascii tables with no editor support is painful. There's also some org functionality in vim plugins, though I've never used them, so I don't know how much they cover.
- ikurei 9y ago
  > if you're already looking to use e.g., Emacs, you'll be better off using org-mode I find that you should use org only if you use Emacs. Vim plugins for Org are very limited, and this is even more true for other editors. Judging a technology only for its technical merits is unproductive. Markdown has "won", it's everywhere and everyone can learn to use it. Those are damn powerful advantages. Using Markdown, I gain the ability to read and write on a smartphone or tablet in my phone or tablet, which for some notes is extremely convenient. Many times being able to access my notes on philosophy from my phone during a bus commute allowed me to develop and write down a thought, which would have been a pain to do with other technologies. Of course I could have done the same with other options, but this ubiquitous convenience and effortlessness is great. What I'd love to see is a way to transition easy-to-write-everywhere to more powerful type-setting easily when needed. May be combining Markdown and Latex? Or converting Markdown to Latex before publishing? I'm sure this exists already; I just haven't needed it enough yet :)
  - tincholio 9y ago
    I don't doubt that using org outside Emacs may be problematic to some degree (in terms of expected functionalities, anyway), but I use Emacs for everything, so it's not really an issue. If popularity alone were sufficient for technological choices, we wouldn't even be having this discussion (and we'd all be using Windows). I try to choose my tools according to how well they work for me. Markdown, in my opinion, is a poor choice compared to org, but I can use it to collaborate with others, no problem. As for the transition from light markup to TeX, that's pretty much the point of the OP, isn't it? Maybe the break point is different for everybody. For me, LaTeX imposes no extra cognitive load, but then again, I've been using it extensively for many years. If I'm need for something lighter, it'll be org (but really, org usually wins for me because of how well it does all the other stuff, not just the markup part).
- wainstead 9y ago
  I’ll second this. We’ve had good experiences converting org-mode files to LaTeX for internal documents.
kilburn 9y ago
Tables are very complicated in LaTeX... but for a goodreason: tables are just hard. In your example: - Should the table appear flushed to the left? Centered in the page? flushed to the right? Full-width or only content-width? - What happens when Column 1 is long? Should the text wrap inside its own cell, overflow, or what? - Which row/column lines should appear? None? All of them? Only those that separate headers? These matters will only get more complicated once the table starts growing. Of course, you could say that all these issues are presentational, and hence it's your theme's job to handle, not yours. That is fine until it breaks and you need to fix it though... Code blocks are very easy in latex too. Install the "minted" [1] package and you can just: \begin{minted}[python] def something(): ... \end{minted} About extensions, it depends I suppose. In your case I would use some rendering app like graphviz and just \includegraphics the resulting ps/pdf. All this can be easily scripted (if you are able to create an extension you should have no problem writing a script that rebuilds your ps/pdf files before building the latex file). I do think that writing simple files in markdown feels better than doing it LaTeX. Unfortunately, as the document starts getting more complicated it's always been easier for me to just turn to "pure" LaTeX than to try and deal with it through pandoc extensions. [1] https://github.com/gpoore/minted https://github.com/gpoore/minted
- GhostVII 9y ago
  I think the author mentioned this elseware, but he wasn't suggesting to use .md for complicated documents, just for notes and simpler documents where you don't need the extra options like complex table formatting, you just want something quick that works.

by Tarean 9y ago

tincholio 9y ago

Thing is, if you're already looking to use e.g., Emacs, you'll be better off using org-mode instead of markdown. Same lightness of syntax, tens of times the functionality (including much better tables, which you can use directly from a TeX document, as well, via radio tables). Editing ascii tables with no editor support is painful. There's also some org functionality in vim plugins, though I've never used them, so I don't know how much they cover.

ikurei 9y ago
> if you're already looking to use e.g., Emacs, you'll be better off using org-mode I find that you should use org only if you use Emacs. Vim plugins for Org are very limited, and this is even more true for other editors. Judging a technology only for its technical merits is unproductive. Markdown has "won", it's everywhere and everyone can learn to use it. Those are damn powerful advantages. Using Markdown, I gain the ability to read and write on a smartphone or tablet in my phone or tablet, which for some notes is extremely convenient. Many times being able to access my notes on philosophy from my phone during a bus commute allowed me to develop and write down a thought, which would have been a pain to do with other technologies. Of course I could have done the same with other options, but this ubiquitous convenience and effortlessness is great. What I'd love to see is a way to transition easy-to-write-everywhere to more powerful type-setting easily when needed. May be combining Markdown and Latex? Or converting Markdown to Latex before publishing? I'm sure this exists already; I just haven't needed it enough yet :)
- tincholio 9y ago
  I don't doubt that using org outside Emacs may be problematic to some degree (in terms of expected functionalities, anyway), but I use Emacs for everything, so it's not really an issue. If popularity alone were sufficient for technological choices, we wouldn't even be having this discussion (and we'd all be using Windows). I try to choose my tools according to how well they work for me. Markdown, in my opinion, is a poor choice compared to org, but I can use it to collaborate with others, no problem. As for the transition from light markup to TeX, that's pretty much the point of the OP, isn't it? Maybe the break point is different for everybody. For me, LaTeX imposes no extra cognitive load, but then again, I've been using it extensively for many years. If I'm need for something lighter, it'll be org (but really, org usually wins for me because of how well it does all the other stuff, not just the markup part).
wainstead 9y ago
I’ll second this. We’ve had good experiences converting org-mode files to LaTeX for internal documents.

kilburn 9y ago

Tables are very complicated in LaTeX... but for a goodreason: tables are just hard. In your example: - Should the table appear flushed to the left? Centered in the page? flushed to the right? Full-width or only content-width? - What happens when Column 1 is long? Should the text wrap inside its own cell, overflow, or what? - Which row/column lines should appear? None? All of them? Only those that separate headers? These matters will only get more complicated once the table starts growing. Of course, you could say that all these issues are presentational, and hence it's your theme's job to handle, not yours. That is fine until it breaks and you need to fix it though... Code blocks are very easy in latex too. Install the "minted" [1] package and you can just: \begin{minted}[python] def something(): ... \end{minted} About extensions, it depends I suppose. In your case I would use some rendering app like graphviz and just \includegraphics the resulting ps/pdf. All this can be easily scripted (if you are able to create an extension you should have no problem writing a script that rebuilds your ps/pdf files before building the latex file). I do think that writing simple files in markdown feels better than doing it LaTeX. Unfortunately, as the document starts getting more complicated it's always been easier for me to just turn to "pure" LaTeX than to try and deal with it through pandoc extensions. [1] https://github.com/gpoore/minted https://github.com/gpoore/minted

GhostVII 9y ago
I think the author mentioned this elseware, but he wasn't suggesting to use .md for complicated documents, just for notes and simpler documents where you don't need the extra options like complex table formatting, you just want something quick that works.