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Tangent question: What are currently viable Markdown alternatives? Imho Markdown is a overall terrible and (especially regarding technical writing!) very limit

Tangent question: What are currently viable Markdown alternatives? Imho Markdown is a overall terrible and (especially regarding technical writing!) very limited format. But nothing else seems popular. Why actually? Are there any realistic alternatives? Thanks for some hints!

pie_flavor 3y ago
Markdown is a formalization of formatting conventions that people were using well before it was invented as a separate product. It was slightly different - the link syntax was novel, and asterisks usually meant bold instead of italics - but it was close enough that the allure of 'your reflexes still work' held. Nothing else is as popular as Markdown because it isn't actually Markdown that's popular, it's what preceded it. Personally I'm happy for it because it'll finally stop programming languages from inventing their own domain-specific oddly-syntaxed subset of HTML; the way Rust uses it is something others have no reason not to copy. For your own technical writing, AsciiDoc works pretty well.
tpreetham 3y ago
org-mode is a brilliant format. The limitation is that you would have to use Emacs or something which support .org files. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVtKhBrRV_ZkPnBtt_TD1Cs9PJlU0IIdE https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVtKhBrRV_ZkPnBtt_TD1Cs9P...
- still_grokking 3y ago
  What else besides EMACS supports .org files? Form the alternatives I've seen so far it looks best. But EMACS? (I'm on Linux, but never liked EMACS or Vi(m)). The second best looking alternative seems AsciiDoc. It has some more tooling as I see it. But really like the .org syntax best so far. So any recommendations for tooling?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - BenFeldman1930 3y ago
    AsciiDoc still has no footnotes, but only endnotes. Therefore not really useful for writing non-fiction books. As org-mode files are only text files, you can use any editor you like. If you want all the goodies (agenda, TODOs etc), you have to use Emacs, yes.
    - still_grokking 3y ago
      > AsciiDoc still has no footnotes, but only endnotes. Does Markdown have footnotes or endnotes? No? People are still misusing it for everything! Especially for technical writing, which is just nuts.
letmeinhere 3y ago
AsciiDoc, org-mode, ReStructured Text are some of the other light markup contenders
toastal 3y ago
In the future, Djot might be up to the task, but currently it’s more fixing issues with Markdown & roadmapping improvements.
BanazirGalbasi 3y ago
> But nothing else seems popular. Why actually? I think markdown's popularity comes from its simplicity. For things like bulleted lists, especially nested ones, I can just type an asterisk and keep going. The raw input is still very readable (for the most part) and adding formatting is quick and easy. For anything basic - such as chat systems, social media posts/comments, or quick note systems - I don't think anything more is needed. Something like reStructuredText (.rst) is a similar alternative, but I think that if you're irritated by the limits of Markdown then rST isn't going to be any better. If you really want good formatting options, then LaTeX is the best I can think of at the moment.
zoogeny 3y ago
In all seriousness, HTML started out as a markup language for documents. That is why tags like <p> for paragraphs and <b> for boldness etc. are so prominent. If you aren't trying to build a SPA or something like that and you just want to mark up some text for formatted output ... HTML is kinda made for that task. That being said, I tend to stick with Markdown since I find angle bracket tags to be noisy and distracting when I view documents in plain text.
- hoofhearted 3y ago
  Yes! I agree with this! It’s just plain old dumb boring static text that is being moved around the web. The internet was essentially created so that CERN could share plain old text documents with others remotely. Why do I need a big bloated overly complicated PHP webserver that talks to an overly complicated database, when it’s just plain old static text after all?

pie_flavor 3y ago

Markdown is a formalization of formatting conventions that people were using well before it was invented as a separate product. It was slightly different - the link syntax was novel, and asterisks usually meant bold instead of italics - but it was close enough that the allure of 'your reflexes still work' held. Nothing else is as popular as Markdown because it isn't actually Markdown that's popular, it's what preceded it. Personally I'm happy for it because it'll finally stop programming languages from inventing their own domain-specific oddly-syntaxed subset of HTML; the way Rust uses it is something others have no reason not to copy. For your own technical writing, AsciiDoc works pretty well.

tpreetham 3y ago

org-mode is a brilliant format. The limitation is that you would have to use Emacs or something which support .org files. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVtKhBrRV_ZkPnBtt_TD1Cs9PJlU0IIdE https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVtKhBrRV_ZkPnBtt_TD1Cs9P...

still_grokking 3y ago
What else besides EMACS supports .org files? Form the alternatives I've seen so far it looks best. But EMACS? (I'm on Linux, but never liked EMACS or Vi(m)). The second best looking alternative seems AsciiDoc. It has some more tooling as I see it. But really like the .org syntax best so far. So any recommendations for tooling?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- BenFeldman1930 3y ago
  AsciiDoc still has no footnotes, but only endnotes. Therefore not really useful for writing non-fiction books. As org-mode files are only text files, you can use any editor you like. If you want all the goodies (agenda, TODOs etc), you have to use Emacs, yes.
  - still_grokking 3y ago
    > AsciiDoc still has no footnotes, but only endnotes. Does Markdown have footnotes or endnotes? No? People are still misusing it for everything! Especially for technical writing, which is just nuts.

letmeinhere 3y ago

AsciiDoc, org-mode, ReStructured Text are some of the other light markup contenders

toastal 3y ago

In the future, Djot might be up to the task, but currently it’s more fixing issues with Markdown & roadmapping improvements.

BanazirGalbasi 3y ago

> But nothing else seems popular. Why actually? I think markdown's popularity comes from its simplicity. For things like bulleted lists, especially nested ones, I can just type an asterisk and keep going. The raw input is still very readable (for the most part) and adding formatting is quick and easy. For anything basic - such as chat systems, social media posts/comments, or quick note systems - I don't think anything more is needed. Something like reStructuredText (.rst) is a similar alternative, but I think that if you're irritated by the limits of Markdown then rST isn't going to be any better. If you really want good formatting options, then LaTeX is the best I can think of at the moment.

zoogeny 3y ago

In all seriousness, HTML started out as a markup language for documents. That is why tags like <p> for paragraphs and <b> for boldness etc. are so prominent. If you aren't trying to build a SPA or something like that and you just want to mark up some text for formatted output ... HTML is kinda made for that task. That being said, I tend to stick with Markdown since I find angle bracket tags to be noisy and distracting when I view documents in plain text.

hoofhearted 3y ago
Yes! I agree with this! It’s just plain old dumb boring static text that is being moved around the web. The internet was essentially created so that CERN could share plain old text documents with others remotely. Why do I need a big bloated overly complicated PHP webserver that talks to an overly complicated database, when it’s just plain old static text after all?