| > gruber's brain-dead version _has_ been replaced. by better versions. the problem is these "better versions" are all inconsistent with each other. They are all mostly consistent with the core markdown. They are inconsistent in their extensions. Markdown itself does have problems in that there was no formal spec, but that's mostly been resolved with CommonMark[1]. They even go so far as to document the different extensions that have been developed with their different syntaxes[2]. You might be tempted to call CommonMark a replacement, but it's not, it's really just a formalization of a spec based on Markdown.pl the the test suite that resolved some ambiguities. > if instead of adopting markdown, people would have extracted a small subset of asciidoc (which predated markdown) or restructured-text (which also predated markdown) In that case, why not Setext, which is from 1991? I'll tell you why, because Markdown was meant to codify already in use norms, and to emphasize readability over all else: Readability, however, is emphasized above all else. A Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While Markdown’s syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML filters — including Setext, atx, Textile, reStructuredText, Grutatext, and EtText — the single biggest source of inspiration for Markdown’s syntax is the format of plain text email. To this end, Markdown’s syntax is comprised entirely of punctuation characters, which punctuation characters have been carefully chosen so as to look like what they mean. E.g., asterisks around a word actually look like emphasis. Markdown lists look like, well, lists. Even blockquotes look like quoted passages of text, assuming you’ve ever used email. - Markdown Syntax "Daring Fireball – Markdown – Syntax. 2013-06-13.[3] > those subsets would've been just as "simple" to learn I think not. For some, including me, markdown was almost zero-cost. It's how I wrote email. > but the blogosphere thought it was hot shit back then, and took great delight in pushing things viral. ergo markdown. I think that's highly simplistic, and ignores the realities. One of which is that it was pushed on Reddit, which has become one of the largest and most used sites on the internet. I find it hard to believe the blogospere opining on it (because it's not actually used on all that many blogs) has had more sway than them on this topic. 1: http://commonmark.org 2: https://github.com/jgm/CommonMark/wiki/Deployed-Extensions 3: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#philosoph... |
it's fairly easy to get the brain-dead part "right". even down to replicating gruber's original bugs and his corner-case complications.
> They are inconsistent in their extensions.
that's precisely my point. and the crux of the problem.
> Markdown was meant to codify already in use norms
markdown's markup did not differ significantly from that of asciidoc or restructured-text. all of them, including setext, leveraged existing conventions from e-mail and usenet.
> and to emphasize readability over all else
since nobody is meant to actually _read_ raw markdown, i've never understood why everyone cites that passage so religiously, other than that is part of the origin story mythology.
> I think that's highly simplistic, and ignores the realities.
due mostly to netnewswire, which installed gruber as its default mac-blogger, gruber's reach was phenomenal when blogging first went viral. if you don't understand the power of that reach at that time, it's probably because you weren't around. and that group of "cool internet kids" still flaunts itself, most notably recently in the nearly-immediate widespread uptake of json-feed.
the _only_ reason markdown was the choice of the masses was because it looked "easier" to a lazy tl;dr mentality. which is a false economy for which the light-markup revolution will have to continue to pay for years down the line.
well, that coupled with the fact that markdown has a catchy name. one cannot deny that. that helped too.
at any rate, kbenson, i'm off to a school reunion, so the last move here will be yours, if you choose to make it. we've hit the point of severely diminished returns anyway.