5 ms·

The reason I write in markdown is because it is fast and keyboard-driven. I don't want to see it when I'm looking at my notes or editing them. The idea that it

The reason I write in markdown is because it is fast and keyboard-driven. I don't want to see it when I'm looking at my notes or editing them. The idea that it is meant to be seen is no more than a personal preference.

Joker_vD 2y ago
But uh, how do you undo the styling from the keyboard? Does Backspace turn "italic" into "*italic"?
- wccrawford 2y ago
  I've seen editors do it that way, and if you know what it looks like in your head, it works quite well, IMO. I can't imagine how it works for people who aren't pretty good at the syntax.
- ixwt 2y ago
  I personally like the way that Obsidian and Typora hide the styling: when you get to where it would be, it shows up on screen to show you it's there causing the styling. When your typing indicator moves away from it, it hides it. Some don't like it because it can cause some displacement of text a bit because it's now showing characters it didn't before.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
    I found Obsidian’s way of doing it to be a bit jarring at first but now that I’ve used it for awhile I personally quite like it. Just takes a little while of getting used to
  - cnity 2y ago
    You could probably do this in a way that doesn't trigger text reflow if a popover appeared with the visible syntax exactly positioned such that the extra syntax slightly obscured surrounding text. It's a tradeoff but I think that might be slicker.
  - Sylamore 2y ago
    Not a user of either of those but that sounds an awful lot like "Reveal Codes" from WordPerfect which saved my ass more than once when formatting got screwed up in a document.
- g15jv2dp 2y ago
  Ctrl+Z
- diwank 2y ago
  It does on a lot of editors and I hate it. On my vim the highlights only get added/removed when I switch back to normal mode, during editing nothing changes except for the actual keystrokes.
Slackwise 2y ago
> because it is fast and keyboard-driven How is it faster to press `*` than `Ctrl-I` in any other rich text editor? > The idea that it is meant to be seen is no more than a personal preference. Actually, the entire philosophy of Markdown is that, even if you didn't process it into HTML or some form of rich text, it uses common conventions that have been used across Usenet, IRC, and plaintext files for years, and is thus readable without ever being processed. In fact, you can likely take various plaintext files and process them and they'll gain many incidental markups and highlights. Meaning, Markdown is Markdown without needing to be turned into HTML or rich text. It is, in itself, a great way to universally markup text as people have been doing online for years.
- watwut 2y ago
  You need to highlight first and only then to press ctrl-I. So yes, typing is faster if you do it a lot.
  - scintill76 2y ago
    You may not be aware that Ctrl-I toggles the mode of new text, not just selected text. I think that poster was saying this: If you're writing a new sentence in MSWord, you type "Emphasize words <Ctrl-I>like this<Ctrl-I>." If you write a new sentence in Markdown, you type "Emphasize words *like this*." The keys are neighbors even, at least in a US keyboard layout, so there is not a reason most US users would say it's "faster" to type * than Ctrl-I. (And if other layout users disagree, okay, but I don't think that was in the scope of the original point.)
    - TeMPOraL 2y ago
      I think in practice, people write "Emphasize words like this.", then <left> *, then <C-left><C-left> *. At least I myself usually add markup immediately after writing the words to be marked up. The problem with Word-like editor styling is exactly that the boundaries are invisible, and the style is applied destructively to everything within highlighted range, instead of non-destructively by the range itself. What I mean is, if in the example above, I want to change the emphasis to only italicize "this", I can kill the first * and place it a word later. In Word-style editing, I'll have to highlight the whole "like " sequence and un-italicize it, hoping I didn't miss a space or a dot that invisibly retains the italics and then screw up editing for you down the line.

Joker_vD 2y ago

But uh, how do you undo the styling from the keyboard? Does Backspace turn "italic" into "*italic"?

wccrawford 2y ago
I've seen editors do it that way, and if you know what it looks like in your head, it works quite well, IMO. I can't imagine how it works for people who aren't pretty good at the syntax.
ixwt 2y ago
I personally like the way that Obsidian and Typora hide the styling: when you get to where it would be, it shows up on screen to show you it's there causing the styling. When your typing indicator moves away from it, it hides it. Some don't like it because it can cause some displacement of text a bit because it's now showing characters it didn't before.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
  I found Obsidian’s way of doing it to be a bit jarring at first but now that I’ve used it for awhile I personally quite like it. Just takes a little while of getting used to
- cnity 2y ago
  You could probably do this in a way that doesn't trigger text reflow if a popover appeared with the visible syntax exactly positioned such that the extra syntax slightly obscured surrounding text. It's a tradeoff but I think that might be slicker.
- Sylamore 2y ago
  Not a user of either of those but that sounds an awful lot like "Reveal Codes" from WordPerfect which saved my ass more than once when formatting got screwed up in a document.
g15jv2dp 2y ago
Ctrl+Z
diwank 2y ago
It does on a lot of editors and I hate it. On my vim the highlights only get added/removed when I switch back to normal mode, during editing nothing changes except for the actual keystrokes.

Slackwise 2y ago

> because it is fast and keyboard-driven How is it faster to press `*` than `Ctrl-I` in any other rich text editor? > The idea that it is meant to be seen is no more than a personal preference. Actually, the entire philosophy of Markdown is that, even if you didn't process it into HTML or some form of rich text, it uses common conventions that have been used across Usenet, IRC, and plaintext files for years, and is thus readable without ever being processed. In fact, you can likely take various plaintext files and process them and they'll gain many incidental markups and highlights. Meaning, Markdown is Markdown without needing to be turned into HTML or rich text. It is, in itself, a great way to universally markup text as people have been doing online for years.

watwut 2y ago
You need to highlight first and only then to press ctrl-I. So yes, typing is faster if you do it a lot.
- scintill76 2y ago
  You may not be aware that Ctrl-I toggles the mode of new text, not just selected text. I think that poster was saying this: If you're writing a new sentence in MSWord, you type "Emphasize words <Ctrl-I>like this<Ctrl-I>." If you write a new sentence in Markdown, you type "Emphasize words *like this*." The keys are neighbors even, at least in a US keyboard layout, so there is not a reason most US users would say it's "faster" to type * than Ctrl-I. (And if other layout users disagree, okay, but I don't think that was in the scope of the original point.)
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    I think in practice, people write "Emphasize words like this.", then <left> *, then <C-left><C-left> *. At least I myself usually add markup immediately after writing the words to be marked up. The problem with Word-like editor styling is exactly that the boundaries are invisible, and the style is applied destructively to everything within highlighted range, instead of non-destructively by the range itself. What I mean is, if in the example above, I want to change the emphasis to only italicize "this", I can kill the first * and place it a word later. In Word-style editing, I'll have to highlight the whole "like " sequence and un-italicize it, hoping I didn't miss a space or a dot that invisibly retains the italics and then screw up editing for you down the line.