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Except of course that almost nobody makes a READER for Markdown. WTF? It's mystifying. You find readme documents in Markdown in every open-source repo, but why
by DidYaWipe 1y ago
Except of course that almost nobody makes a READER for Markdown. WTF? It's mystifying.
You find readme documents in Markdown in every open-source repo, but why? What are you supposed to read them with?
After much searching I finally ended up with Marked, on the Mac. A paid app. But that's about it for options. And no, I'm not talking about text editors that offer a "preview" pane that you can optionally invoke. I'm talking about a simple reader for Markdown that renders it, so you're not reading a shitty text file with a bunch of formatting codes in it. Why bother putting them in, if nothing parses and acts on them?
- TheDong 1y agoMarkdown renders to html. Browsers read html. You're supposed to read markdown with a browser by rendering it to html and reading the html.
- DidYaWipe 1y agoWhat a dumb pain in the ass. Do you seriously check out a repo, run the read-me file through a Markdown-to-HTML converter, and then launch a browser to read the result?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Kwpolska 1y agoGitHub renders Markdown if you click on a file in the Web repo view.
- DidYaWipe 1y agoThanks, but when I check something out, I'm working with it on my computer. I don't want to go back to Github every time I want to read something.
- mistercheph 1y agothe nicest thing about markdown is that it’s entirely legible in plaintext mode, I don’t need it to be rendered, unlike other markup languages
- DidYaWipe 1y agoBut since there are vanishingly few readers that render the markup, why have it at all? Or, from the other angle, with Markdown being found in so many places, why aren't there popular viewers for it?
- al_borland 1y agoMany modern editors, including VS Code, have a button which opens a preview pane to see rendered Markdown. It’s a single button click (the page with the magnifying glass on it in the upper right), no one is installing pandoc to read readme files. The preview is really only needed if there is advanced formatting or HTML in there. A basic markdown doc should be easy to read in plain text.
- DidYaWipe 1y agoThus my point. If everyone's answer is "just read the plain text," then why have the junk in it at all? And I don't want an extra "preview" pane. That was the specific complaint. Nor do I want these docs in my IDE at all. I want all the available space in my IDE for code. Again, why have this format all over the place when there are vanishingly few VIEWERS for it? Or vice versa?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- jen20 1y agoPart of the point of Markdown is that it's supposed to read like plain text - many of the elements is what was commonplace on usenet and in email. If you're on macOS though, the best option for rendered Markdown is a quicklook plugin. There are a few around - I like [1] though. [1]: https://github.com/smittytone/PreviewMarkdown https://github.com/smittytone/PreviewMarkdown
- DidYaWipe 1y agoThanks! But then why not just use plain text? Because of the lack of widely-available, lightweight Markdown readers, everyone just ends up reading the text with a bunch of codes in it. It's just... dumb.
- epistasis 1y agoMarkdown is plain text, so using Markdown is using plain text. What is your alternative to Markdown here?
- DidYaWipe 1y agoThat's just playing dumb. It's only "plain text" in that it's non-binary. It contains formatting codes that aren't part of the informative content. If everyone's just using a plain-text reader to view these files, then why clutter them up with formatting codes?
- epistasis 1y agoI'm not "playing dumb" it's basically exactly the type of text I would type in my notes before it was codified. Headers, bullets, bold, italic, all would have fit in perfectly in text-based Usenet groups of the 90s. It's not "clutter" it's meaningful information for the human eye in plain text. Which is why I'm asking: what's your alternative? Is it no headers, no lists, no standard * or \_ for emphasis, as it has been done long before Markdown existed?
- DidYaWipe 1y ago
- RandallBrown 1y ago> You find readme documents in Markdown in every open-source repo, but why? What are you supposed to read them with? Every source control website I've used will render Markdown as HTML for you.
- DidYaWipe 1y agoSo you need to round-trip it through a Web site? Wow, convenient.
- saagarjha 1y agoWhy are you surprised that the easiest way to view a markup format for generating HTML is on the web?
- DidYaWipe 1y agoI was going to call out that out as a strawman, knowing that it doesn't meet the classic definition. Let me look up what's it's called when you bury a not-agreed-with assertion in a question that requires the recipient to agree with it... Ah, so that's the definition of a "loaded question." Thanks for the fallacy! "Loaded Question: A loaded question contains an assumption that may or may not be true or agreed upon. It's designed to trap the respondent into confirming a premise they might not agree with, regardless of their answer. Complex Question Fallacy (or plurium interrogationum): This is a logical fallacy where the question presumes the truth of something that may be false or unproven. Answering it directly implies agreement with that presupposition."
- saagarjha 1y agoWhat's there to disagree with? This is a fact.
- RandallBrown 1y agoIt's always been very convenient for me since that's where I do most of my readme reading. The IDE that I use most of the time also renders markdown.
- AlotOfReading 1y agoTypora, obsidian, marktext, vscode and emacs with the right extensions, etc. Most people don't care enough to search them out, but you have a good number of choices available.
- DidYaWipe 1y agoThanks, but most of those are examples of exactly what I'm talking about: an editor with a Markdown "preview" function tacked on. I just want to double-click on the .md file and read it in a rendered form. Otherwise... what's the point? And because of the lack of such readers, everyone just reads the plain text with a bunch of garbage in it. It's just gallingly dumb.
- dismalaf 1y agoEditors are for, gasp, writing or editing source code like Markdown. Some people write source code and aren't just users... That's what documentation generators are for, to render all the docs and search them if you're just a user.
- DidYaWipe 1y agoAnd read-me files are for, <gasp>, READING. Not writing. I have no need to EDIT any Markdown files... pretty much ever. Nor do I need to clutter my IDE with tabs devoted to reference material, much less an extra pane to "preview" it in its intended rendering. Your pretension that most programming involves writing Markdown "source code" is absurd. I neither want nor need Markdown in any of my source-code editors, ever. Not once in decades of professional programming have I missed it. And if I do need to create Markdown, I will want to do so in a simple WYSIWIG editor and save it as MD. Again... not in my IDE.
- dismalaf 1y agoSomeone writes the README... And WYSIWYG? Who uses those? And how often are you even reading READMEs? For me it's usually once, when I first use a library, because it typically gives an outline of the project and/or instructions on how to install it. So I'm reading it in a browser. Meanwhile I'm updating my own READMEs often, usually using them as a sort of to-do list and then outlining existing functionality. Like, are you really using so many libraries as glue that reading READMEs is such a common task that you specifically want it in your IDE? Is that the current state of programming?
- vunderba 1y agoFor a second there I thought you were referring to a hardware solution. It would be pretty neat if I could drop straight markdown files into my Kindle and have them rendered in an aesthetically pleasing fashion.
- DidYaWipe 1y agoI agree, but it's worse than that: There aren't even widely-available SOFTWARE readers.
- al_borland 1y agoIt would likely be trivial for Amazon or other ereader companies to add a feature like this.
- meehai 1y agovscode with the markdown plugin works really good. text on the left, render on the right pane example: https://imgur.com/9rjoMa2.png https://imgur.com/9rjoMa2.png
- DidYaWipe 1y agoThanks, but that's a prime example of having to launch an editor and invoke a "preview" function (after installing a plug-in) to view this inexplicably ubiquitous format. It's even dumber when you ponder: What is this a "preview" of? How the document will look in... a nonexistent viewer?
- rcarmo 1y agoThere are at least three QuickLook previewers that I know of: https://taoofmac.com/space/markup/markdown https://taoofmac.com/space/markup/markdown