Daniel Terhorst-North
Steve Fenton ➜@tastapod given how unsuccessful more formal definitions have been, there's something about these messy ambiguous formats that resonates with people. Maybe something to do with how subvertible they are?!!
@stevefenton see also: how quickly HTML degenerated after starting as a strict subset of SGML
MikeStok@tastapod @PragmaticAndy In my opinion Markdown’s ubiquity is yet another example of “smart” tech folks taking a tool that was good for its purpose and gleefully applying it in areas where its weaknesses and limitations are the things many users experience most. Markdown is useful for small lists and documents, but if presentation or navigation matter then it is at best a mediocre target output for rendering.
I’m with Butterick on this one: https://docs.racket-lang.org/pollen/second-tutorial.html#(part._the-case-against-markdown)
@MikeStok @PragmaticAndy it's usually about least friction. To even look at e.g. pollen, I need to install a language, then another thing, and then I'm stuck in someone's editor (or someone else's editor plugin).
To use Markdown I need... a keyboard. Ditto YAML vs e.g. TOML or anything else. It's ugly, but it's easy ugly.
@tastapod @PragmaticAndy … and we wonder why software quality is so low.
@MikeStok @PragmaticAndy We can blame the users (us developers in this case) or we can do the work to make the 'right' path the easy one.
Exhibit A: password managers. When you make it easier for me to have something else generate and remember a strong password, people are much more likely to adopt it (including my 70-something in-laws).
Exhibit B: Ubiquitous biometrics and seamless secure enclave. Same in-laws login with their fingers or faces, oblivious to how much more secure this is.