[sokoloff]

Markdown has fewer ways to inexplicably (from the point of view of a naive user) munge text.

If you type plain text, it mostly comes out as plain text.

I've paid John $4.50 for a sandwich.

Renders fine in Markdown. Renders like crap in LaTeX.

[ams6110]

Markdown has its own magic incantations that can infuriate if you don't get them just right. GP is right: most people can't handle markup languages, period. Or, they can, but vastly prefer WYSIWYG text formatting.

For me, if I'm writing something for a web page, I use HTML in a decent editor (emacs). Markdown, reST, or anything else is not easier, just different.

If I need a really nice-looking document, I'll probably use LaTeX. But for a simple document or one that I'll work on with other people, I'll normally just use google docs.

[Jach]

34 renders fine in LaTeX, in Markdown when you then do 28 it's oh-no. (See this and many other HN comments.)