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HN doesn't even attempt to support Markdown. It's just happenstance that a couple of formatting options are similar. HN's doc on formatting: https://news.ycomb
by spiffytech 6y ago
HN doesn't even attempt to support Markdown. It's just happenstance that a couple of formatting options are similar.
HN's doc on formatting: https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc
But on other sites, yes, it's very irritating that I can't count on support for things like tables or checkboxes because those are extensions to Markdown and not part of CommonMark or the original reference everyone implemented from. Or how some sites get finnicky about whitespace around list items.
- JoshTriplett 6y ago> HN doesn't even attempt to support Markdown. It's just happenstance that a couple of formatting options are similar. In particular, for a website that heavily covers software and engineering, it's a pain that it doesn't have a good way to format code. ``` this should be formatted as four lines of code with line breaks at every newline without having to indent every line with spaces ```
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- the_af 6y agoI wonder why this is. Is it because there aren't enough HN users who would actually use markdown formatting (I know I would!), because it's too much work to implement, because "if it ain't broke...", or for any other reason?
- geerlingguy 6y agoThe one and only reason I feel like that's not _such_ a bad thing is that once you do that, you know more people will drop tons of code samples in posts making the discussion a lot less easy to browse.
- rozab 6y agoCurrently people often use these code block-ish things for quoting text, for lack of a better option. This is completely unreadable on mobile for lines of any significant length, because the block itself is a box about half the width of the screen that doesn't wrap and must be scrolled horizontally. Minimal features and css are all well and good as long as they work properly ;)
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- 3131s 6y agoHN can't even display more than like 200 comments on a single page without melting down, so don't be too surprised.
- jandrese 6y agoIt's the same idea even if they don't call it markdown. It's yet another formatting language to learn and occasionally confuse with similar things on other sites, and will occasionally bite you when you least expect it. For example: I never shop at WalMart because WalMart doesn't pay their workers a living wage.