Interesting Issue

[Ian Gregory]

On Fri, Dec 10, 2004 at 11:02:48AM -0500, Lou Quillio wrote:
> Ian Gregory wrote:
> 
> > Why are there two different characters to denote emphasis?
> 
> It's all in this list's archives, though you'd have to dig a bit.

No time for digging right now:-(
 
> There were arguments, but they were all based on personal taste and
> weren't getting anywhere.  John made the call, as he should, and it
> was based on *inclusion*.  Tough to argue with.

Fair enough.
 
> > Another option would have been to use "_" for <em> (which
> > in my browser gets displayed as underlining I think) and "*"
> > for strong (which if I recall correctly gets displayed as
> > bold).
> 
> That was the leading alternative.  A decision was called for, and it
> lost.  Markdown's already too widely used to re-open this can of
> worms (I supported the alternative, btw).

I would have supported it too if I had been involved in the process.
(Actually I have been involved - submitted feedback, found a bug in
Markdown and one in Aaron's HTML to Markdown converter etc, but I
never heard about the call for a decision on emphasis syntax - I
must have joined this list late).
 
> Set-off with appropriate spacing and linebreaks, I think folks
> recognize a list regardless of the bullet.

*I* can recognize a list regardless of bullets, but if I want to
quickly grep for unordered list items in a directory full of
Markdown files? It would be easier if they all started with the
same character. OK, only marginally so, but I don't really want
to have to remember to grep for "*" or "+" or "-" when I know
they all actually mean the same thing. The fewer characters that
have special meaning the better as far as I am concerned. The
advantage of allowing "+" and "-" in addition to "*" for unordered
lists is marginal, it does not give any extra functionality
and only adds complexity. OK, some users might prefer to see "+"
in their Markdown source for bullet points, but how far do you
take this? What if someone wants to use "~"? I am not advocating
tyranny, but there is a point where pandering to everyone's
desires (as opposed to satisfying functional requirements) becomes
counter-productive. I do not give two hoots about whether the
bullet character is "*" or "+" or "-" or even "@", but I would
prefer if there was just one:-)

> And, although it's a righteous achievement, Markdown isn't the last
> XHTML pseudomarkup scheme.  Anybody may hack it, or devise their
> own.  That's the great equalizer in these disputes of taste.

Don't get me wrong, Markdown came at just the right time for me.
I had some requirements in mind but neither the time nor expertise
to develop my own system. Then along comes John (and Aaron and
anyone else who was involved) with something that almost exactly
fit my needs. All 200 or so pages on my site are written in Markdown
and only 3 needed *any* inline XHTML (forms).

Cheers,
Ian

-- 
Ian Gregory
http://www.zenatode.org.uk/ian/