Discussion related to Markdown.

[Michel Fortin]

Le 2005-10-28 à 12:33, Gee Starr a écrit :


> FWIW: This is by a long shot the most frequent complaint I  

> encounter from

> users on several MarkDown implementations (one discussion board, two

> min-CMSs). It is particularly confusing to beginners or casual web  

> users

> who are proud to have even learned how to copy a URL out of a location

> bar. :-)

>

> Meanwhile, to date there has not been a single instance on any of the

> implementations of a user wanting to add emphasis *within* a word.


I'll add to the discussion that I have yet to receive a complain  
about PHP Markdown Extra not accepting middle-word underscore- 
emphasis... while at the same time I have received emails from people  
switching to Extra precisely because I've fixed the  
"bug_by_oversight" (as someone called it).

Which brings me to this point: every person emailing me about this  
thought it was a bug at first. Markdown is there to be "natural",  
yet, this syntax has to be pretty counter-intuitive to make people  
assume it's a bug in the software -- as opposed to them not knowing  
the right syntax.

I think John should address this one way or another. Word of mouth  
about this could/will at some point be detrimental to Markdown's  
"intuitiveness" reputation. Providing workarounds doesn't solve  
anything: *workaround* doesn't usually fit well with *intuitive*.


Michel Fortin
michel.fortin at michelf.com
http://www.michelf.com/