[diarrhea]

In an ideal world, I would like to write plain Markdown and send an email off like that, with conversion to HTML happening in the background. A suitable Thunderbird addon for this [1] seems abandoned. Formatting HTML is a real struggle for me in Thunderbird's WYSIWYG editor. On the other hand, using plain-text lacks in readability (lists, short links instead of full URLs, headers, quotes, ...).

[1]: https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/markd...

[GordonS]

I wish this became a standard - plain text is great, but sometimes you do want style and formatting, and HTML mail is beyond horrible to get working across clients (yes, I know there are a few well known templates, but still).

I think the problem is that HTML and CSS are now so big, and people use such a range of device sizes, that writing clients to display things accurately and consistently is very hard. Markdown sounds perfect to fill the gap between HTML and plain text.

[eikenberry]

The conversion should happen in the receiving client. That way it can be configured to the tastes of the person reading it and it would make pre-processed in other ways easier. Plus its backward compatible with plain test clients.

[mottosso]

I've been using "Markdown Here" for the past few years and live in this ideal world already. It's great, you should come visit. :)

[diarrhea]

The link in my comment is to "Markdown Here" as a Thunderbird addon, but it is not compatible with recent Thunderbirds.

[mtlynch]

+1 for Markdown-Here. It works well enough for me despite it being abandoned.

[petercooper]

It's more for newsletters than normal day to day email but Swizec Teller (a regular here) made https://techletter.app/ which may be of use to some with Markdown to email needs. It even drags in tweets, code, and so forth and renders it without you doing anything.