undefined | Better HN

0 pointsShadowBanThis012y ago0 comments

Also: Don't use Markdown. Yes, it's "human-readable," but it's full of code text and there are almost no stand-alone VIEWERS for it.

The rampant use of Markdown while there's a lack of viewers for it is baffling. And no, I don't count editors in which you can invoke a "preview" of the Markdown. Why publish in a format that must be loaded into an editor and then "previewed?"

You might as well just use plain text, since the reader is just going to be seeing the raw text of the file anyway.

Or have stand-alone viewers (not editors) for Markdown proliferated since I last checked a couple years ago?

0 comments

dcow2y ago

I think markdown reads very nicely in text form.

    Title
    ===
    
    Summary of the page
    
    # H1 Intersting Topic
    
    The most important part of [1] is...
    
    ## H2 What others say
    
    > Quote from somebody. Callout something.
    
    And then it's implemented like:
    
    ```
    // this code is a demonstration of how to query foo
    func foo() {
      does_thing();
    }
    ```
    
    # Conclusion
    
    You should use markdown to structure your documents.

    [1]: https://example.com

ShadowBanThis01OP2y ago

I said yes, you can read it. But I also noted that it's riddled with ## and other junk that doesn't do anything beneficial because you're seeing plain text. So why have detracting, non-informational characters in there?

OrderlyTiamat2y ago

> riddled with ## and other junk

I'd argue in favor of those. A competent text editor (let's say no older than 40 years old) can highlight and/or render that. When using base markdown, those things add structure to the document. I'd much rather see a markdown file with basics like headers and code sections (which are usually highlighted correctly) than a raw .txt file.

however I think your argument goes doubly hard when dealing with these more advanced html integrated readmes. The md file of the example readme is not well readable when opened in a text file to me- and there's actually very little content there! I prefer a more minimal approach where opening the .md file gives me the information I need, and opening it in a rendered environment gets me some niceties (perhaps you've got badges with coverage or versions nrs idk). But it should work in both.

1 more reply

dcow2y ago

My point is the ## provide structure and for me help to visually lay out the document, so I like reading markdown. To each their own.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsShadowBanThis012y ago0 comments

Also: Don't use Markdown. Yes, it's "human-readable," but it's full of code text and there are almost no stand-alone VIEWERS for it.

You might as well just use plain text, since the reader is just going to be seeing the raw text of the file anyway.

Or have stand-alone viewers (not editors) for Markdown proliferated since I last checked a couple years ago?

0 comments

dcow2y ago

I think markdown reads very nicely in text form.

    Title
    ===
    
    Summary of the page
    
    # H1 Intersting Topic
    
    The most important part of [1] is...
    
    ## H2 What others say
    
    > Quote from somebody. Callout something.
    
    And then it's implemented like:
    
    ```
    // this code is a demonstration of how to query foo
    func foo() {
      does_thing();
    }
    ```
    
    # Conclusion
    
    You should use markdown to structure your documents.

    [1]: https://example.com

ShadowBanThis01OP2y ago

OrderlyTiamat2y ago

> riddled with ## and other junk

1 more reply

dcow2y ago

My point is the ## provide structure and for me help to visually lay out the document, so I like reading markdown. To each their own.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse