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by dredmorbius 2818 days ago
Markdown doesn't require tag closure, and eliminates the <p> tag entirely. This makes for a cleaner and faster composing experience.

I did little but wruite in HTML from the late 1990s to mid 2010s. Markdown is my preferred route now.

Also conversant in LaTeX, formerly; nroff, DocBook, WP4.2, Wordstar (both with 'reveal codes' capabilities), and probably more. Pandoc is a game-changer.
1 comments
enriquto 2817 days ago
> Markdown doesn't require tag closure, and eliminates the <p> tag entirely. This makes for a cleaner and faster composing experience.

The HTML5 specification also allows omitting most closing tags (except for the obvious ones, that you also need to close in markdown).

You are right about the <p> tag, still. It is the main source of annoyance when writing long documents in html by hand.

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dredmorbius 2817 days ago
Well-formed HTML5 needs closure though, no? Hrm ... ok, looks like specs are far looser than I'd thought.

h[1-6], li, blockquote, pre, can all be specified via an opening-only syntax.

p, ul, ol, and dl can be omitted entirely.

Arguably anchors require closure, but the syntax is still briefer than HTML. Images likewise.

Header, footer, and aside don't exist (they can be supplied in a template). article, div, and span are also ignored.

Italic, bold, strikeout, code, subscript, and superscript require a lightweight closure, and are actually the main cause of grief in my Markup writing.

Tables are hugely more sane.

And footnotes automajickally exist. Swoon!

It's not that HTML is foreign or annoying to me. It's just .... more frictional.

And I have all kinds of nice words to say for HTML5. The base spec is quite good.

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