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Markdown vs WSYWYG
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Posted by Garland Coulson
Sep 1, 2013 at 07:27 PM
I notice several comments about some programs from people wanting markdown support. I had to look it up to see what it meant.
I had a look at it but it seems to me that it would be slower to make some text bold using markdown vs just clicking on the B in a WSYWIG editor. What am I missing? What is the appeal of markdown?
Posted by Gary Carson
Sep 1, 2013 at 07:46 PM
It’s even faster to use the keyboard shortcut CTL-B to turn bolding off and on while you’re writing.
I think markdown is mostly useful for programmers who need to automatically generate HTML and the like, but I guess it all depends on what you’re doing.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Sep 1, 2013 at 08:40 PM
The two main advantages of MarkDown go hand in hand:
- it is stored in plain text files, so you can use it with any editor
- it is human-readable, i.e. unlike HTML it doesn’t interfere with the text’s readability
Posted by shatteredmindofbob
Sep 1, 2013 at 09:16 PM
I mostly like the link format.
When I’m writing something that’s going online and is going to have a bunch of links I can just go [Text to be hyperlinked](TK) and keep writing without stopping to deal with the link.
Once the article is finished, I can back through and paste the URLs in place of the TK. I find this much faster than any means I’ve found using WYSIWYG editors.
Posted by Hugh
Sep 2, 2013 at 08:40 AM
Related to bob’s comment immediately above, I think one of the argued-for attractions of Markdown to long-form writers of all descriptions is the focus that it allows them to give to their content, rather than to their formatting. (This also explains commercial decisions by developers to include Markdown functionality or interfaces in certain applications designed for long-form writing, such as the recently launched Ulysses III.)
One could debate forever whether Markdown does indeed enable the promised facility and therefore focus - but that is the claim.