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Feels like a weird hill to die on. I don't think I've had a single issue with single dollar signs being math block boundaries. It's also weird to say that Githu
by flexagoon 5mo ago
Feels like a weird hill to die on. I don't think I've had a single issue with single dollar signs being math block boundaries. It's also weird to say that Github is the one who invented this or that it was a malicious choice, when it's clearly MathJax, which is far from being "antiquated ugly crapware". It is still used by Wikipedia, most scientific websites, etc. Yes, KaTeX may have advantages, but MathJax is very much alive.
There is a myriad of different software which uses different math delimeters. Some markdown flavors for example use \(\), which is probably the worst of them to use. Is that also malicious?
A much better rant about math syntax in Markdown would be that all flavours still use the LaTeX syntax instead of the very obviously superior Typst one. If you think not embracing Katex instead of Mathjax early enough is a malicious choice, then is this one malicious as well?
- joesuf4 5mo agoWrong. As the article states, MathJax has nothing to do with Markdown. Never did. For that matter, neither did KaTeX. It just inteprets text some grammar parser delivers to it and delivers MathML. The embrace and extend problem appears when you incorporate LaTeX’s grammar into Markdown.
- joesuf4 5mo agoPerhaps I should say syntax, but really how are you supposed to know what is meant when someone writes $1.50, $2.00 or $\text{more}$.
- joesuf4 5mo agoBesides, nobody gives a crap about Wikipedia file formats. They are not specs that others may implement independently. GFM is a spec, not a vendor format.
- applicative 5mo agooriginal gruber-swartz markdown has no spec, just perl program with many comical corner cases.
- joesuf4 5mo agoThe spec is linked to in the article. Do you know how to click on a link, or do you use Braille?
- flexagoon 5mo agoThat is an overview of the syntax the program supports. It's not even remotely a formal specification.
- joesuf4 5mo agoYawn.
- applicative 5mo agothere is absolutely no specification. one who thinks there is has no idea what such words actually mean. thousands have burned their brains on this question
- joesuf4 5mo agoThere is absolutely no point to your post. We are discussing GFM, which is also linked to in the article you didn't read.
- applicative 5mo agoIts good they cancelled this thread. In fact I read the post, which shows you are completely ignorant of the history of markdowns and the various basically scientific problems they have posed. Thus e.g. commonmark, the basis of gfm, was devised in consortium between github, pandoc (whose author composed the specification) and assorted other well known markdowns.
- professoretc 5mo ago> Some markdown flavors for example use \(\), which is probably the worst of them to use. Some markdown flavors say they use `\(\)` but they also use `\` as the escape character, so in practice you have to use `\\(\\)` which is definitely the worst.
- joesuf4 4mo agoJust use double-dollar for everything as the Editor.md developers originally introduced in 2015. Simple, painless, and intelligent. Using a single-dollar is asinine.