4 ms·

Markdown? Markdown-ish? Something better than the foot-gun of markup currently supported?

function_seven 6y ago
My wish list is not full Markdown support, but a little more than is currently implemented: 1. Ordered lists - Unordered lists Inline `code snippets` Super^script That's it. I totally get why HN wouldn't want tables, bold headers, etc. There's a danger of comments getting visually "noisy" with these. But for referencing code or mathematical concepts, or just listing things, the 4 things above would be really handy.
- ramses0 6y ago
  Yup... Lists, `inline`, and ```code``` would be fantastic. It's so annoying for n.yc to be literally the only place on the internet where you can type into a textbox but that textbox isn't some variation of markdown. (even facebook messages [on web] supports triple-ticks for code!)
  - lights0123 6y ago
    > literally the only place on the internet Haven't worked with forum software other than Discourse, have you? They all still use BBCode.
    - ramses0 6y ago
      True, but it's such a mismatch in expectations where the entire tech industry has embraced markdown, but n.yc (tech mecca / water cooler) is most decidedly (and surprisingly) uses NotMarkdown(tm).
      - Spooky23 6y ago
        HN is an institution. The tech industry should be ashamed that they have HN modes.
    - charrondev 6y ago
      I work at Vanilla Forums (we power some of the largest communities online). I’ve worked a lot on our editors and content formatting pipelines. We support plaintext, markdown, HTML, BBCode, and a WYSIWYG editor with markdown shortcuts. In reality is estimate the distribution is mostly the WYSIWYG editor nowadays for newer sites and BBCode for the older ones (some users on older entrenched communities really like their BBCode I guess).
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - tomklein 6y ago
    You can do code blocks by putting two spaces in front of text: This is an example of a code block, if that’s what you meant.
    - marshmallow_12 6y ago
      how do you do that? also its not on the list.. [Oh, wow! A new skill learnt]
    - ramses0 6y ago
      Here's a memorable jingle for that handy new emergency number... ``` https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ ``` </snark>
- bradrn 6y ago
  I find I can make unordered lists quite effectively • like this • using characters like • U+2022 BULLET ‣ Or U+2023 TRIANGULAR BULLET Similarly, you can do superˢᶜʳⁱᵖᵗ using Unicode as well (though I would only recommend it for numbers; Unicode doesn’t include all superscript letters, and most of the ones it does include look bad when used together). But yes, I agree that proper support for these things would be very good. (Especially code blocks!)
  - function_seven 6y ago
    Yeah, I’ve done it before for superscript characters and even have used fixed width code points to force inline code. But it was cumbersome. (One time my whole comment was written in fixed width characters—I don’t remember why—and I found it a few hours later transliterated to the 0-127 range) EDIT: Also, with native list support, you don’t get the wide line spacing. I like lists that aren’t paragraphs for each item.

My wish list is not full Markdown support, but a little more than is currently implemented: 1. Ordered lists - Unordered lists Inline `code snippets` Super^script That's it. I totally get why HN wouldn't want tables, bold headers, etc. There's a danger of comments getting visually "noisy" with these. But for referencing code or mathematical concepts, or just listing things, the 4 things above would be really handy.

ramses0 6y ago
Yup... Lists, `inline`, and ```code``` would be fantastic. It's so annoying for n.yc to be literally the only place on the internet where you can type into a textbox but that textbox isn't some variation of markdown. (even facebook messages [on web] supports triple-ticks for code!)
- lights0123 6y ago
  > literally the only place on the internet Haven't worked with forum software other than Discourse, have you? They all still use BBCode.
  - ramses0 6y ago
    True, but it's such a mismatch in expectations where the entire tech industry has embraced markdown, but n.yc (tech mecca / water cooler) is most decidedly (and surprisingly) uses NotMarkdown(tm).
    - Spooky23 6y ago
      HN is an institution. The tech industry should be ashamed that they have HN modes.
  - charrondev 6y ago
    I work at Vanilla Forums (we power some of the largest communities online). I’ve worked a lot on our editors and content formatting pipelines. We support plaintext, markdown, HTML, BBCode, and a WYSIWYG editor with markdown shortcuts. In reality is estimate the distribution is mostly the WYSIWYG editor nowadays for newer sites and BBCode for the older ones (some users on older entrenched communities really like their BBCode I guess).
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- tomklein 6y ago
  You can do code blocks by putting two spaces in front of text: This is an example of a code block, if that’s what you meant.
  - marshmallow_12 6y ago
    how do you do that? also its not on the list.. [Oh, wow! A new skill learnt]
  - ramses0 6y ago
    Here's a memorable jingle for that handy new emergency number... ``` https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ ``` </snark>
bradrn 6y ago
I find I can make unordered lists quite effectively • like this • using characters like • U+2022 BULLET ‣ Or U+2023 TRIANGULAR BULLET Similarly, you can do superˢᶜʳⁱᵖᵗ using Unicode as well (though I would only recommend it for numbers; Unicode doesn’t include all superscript letters, and most of the ones it does include look bad when used together). But yes, I agree that proper support for these things would be very good. (Especially code blocks!)
- function_seven 6y ago
  Yeah, I’ve done it before for superscript characters and even have used fixed width code points to force inline code. But it was cumbersome. (One time my whole comment was written in fixed width characters—I don’t remember why—and I found it a few hours later transliterated to the 0-127 range) EDIT: Also, with native list support, you don’t get the wide line spacing. I like lists that aren’t paragraphs for each item.