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Random question - what are the _underscores_ that show up frequently in Linus's responses?
by dandigangi 8y ago
Random question - what are the _underscores_ that show up frequently in Linus's responses?
- icedchai 8y agoIt's for emphasis. Some people use asterisks. He uses underscores.
- dullroar 8y agoNote he uses both, even in the same paragraph - asterisks typically mean "bold," whereas underscores typically mean "underlined."
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- saagarjha 8y agoExcept in Slack, which somehow interprets this to be italics.
- naikrovek 8y agoMarkdown started that in general. There's no way to underline something in Markdown; underlining just isn't supported.
- kevin_thibedeau 8y agoUnderlining was a substitute for italics before everyone had fancy word processors.
- floatingatoll 8y agoThey were always meant for emphasis, which takes on variable definitions over time. Terminals were bad at italics due to character box layouts and so the literary approach of emphasis through italics mutated into emphasis through underlines. Now that we’re all free of monospaced terminal grids, it looks like we’re drifting back to emphasis through italics.
- fao_ 8y agoItalics were still used though. Like /this/.
- LeoPanthera 8y agoBack in the days of usenet, and way before markdown, we always used bold, /italic/, and _underline_. You were just supposed to mentally interpret them in your head. Edit: Ironically, HN is translating my asterisk-bolds into italic.
- dullroar 8y agoMeant to be underline the word between.
- hyperman1 8y agoAn old way to underline. To cite the jargon file: Also, it is common to use bracketing with unusual characters to signify emphasis. The asterisk is most common, as in “What the *hell*?” even though this interferes with the common use of the asterisk suffix as a footnote mark. The underscore is also common, suggesting underlining http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/writing-style.html http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/writing-style.html