I find Markdown to be nothing more than something someone created just because they could, but which is actually redundant and plain nasty to use. You might like to see what I've said in a little more detail in response to this blog at http://is.gd/55tCrJ
Alright, at the risk of getting jumped on here for asking too rudimentary a question, where can I can I get a primer on this Markdown syntax language thing.
I've read all of the why stuff and I'm intrigued, but I'm a bit stuck on the how.
I'm starting to blog and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out HTML to make my little Wordpress blog look halfway decent. But I must confess I'd sure love an alternative.
So is there a smart place to start or will a simple Google search bring up the best links to wrap my cranium around how to use it?
Any advice would be a preciated. Thanks...
What Brett said. After checking out Gruber's syntax, do a search on Brett's site and go from there.
I also recommend the Mac Power Users episode #37 on Markdown and anything Eddie at Practically Efficient writes on the topic.
Start with John Gruber's syntax documentation.
If you're interested in MultiMarkdown's extensions, see Fletcher Penney's wiki page.
As a shameless plug, Marked makes an excellent learning tool in combination with your favorite text editor.
My Markdown + nvALT + Dropbox workflow saved my bacon in the last few weeks when my Macbook air suddenly decided it wanted to spend three days at the Apple Store and I had to do 2/3 of a proposal for work using a loaner PC and my roommate's MacBook with 10.4 still on it. I lost nothing, I had no worries about compatibility, and when I got my laptop back last Friday, I was able to put everything together and send it to my boss as a Word doc using Byword.
My previous Pages-based writing self would have just curled up in a corner and cried, unable to open my files.
Actually, I'd love a Markdown shirt. Not sure exactly what I'd put on it, maybe a link on the front with a reference on the back? Something like Front: [Markdown] Back: (http://daringfireball.net/p... or Front: [Markdown][1] Back: [1]:[http://daringfireball.net/p...] and give it the DF color treatment.
I'd also love nvALT t-shirts. Just saying...
Lots of Markdown praise among some of the minimal fulltime commenting Mac bloggers lately, and I get it as a replacement for html, but I'm astonished at how often many folks seem to say they use Markdown or another lightweight markup for email. What's the point? Seems kind of like a wannabe coder saying me too.
I write my emails in plain text and use Markdown for formatting. Plain text is readable by every email client, and Markdown is unobtrusive enough that I can ensure my meaning gets across even if formatting is lost. Future-proof, platform-proof communication.
I especially like it for including a list of links after the email body, with references within the content to specific links. It makes it more readable than putting them inline, and I don't have to worry about rich text links being lost in translation.
vs other lightweight markup languages:
<ul>
<li>The same syntax can also be used in pseudo-MD plain text or emails
<ul>
<li>Backticks, italics, blockquotes, lists, headings, etc</li>
</ul></li>
<li>It's the most popular and emerging standard lightweight markup language
<ul>
<li>It's used by Stack Exchange, Github, and blog comments</li>
<li>People are releasing more cool scripts and utilities for MD than other LMLs</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
vs plain HTML:
<ul>
<li>HTML entities are encoded automatically</li>
<li>It's much easier to create indented or nested lists</li>
<li>It can be written efficiently without any text editor macros or commands</li>
</ul>
I think each point also applies to other lightweight markup languages. I mean, it's only souped-up text...
The only difference is that Markdown is slightly better represented online.
I tried Markdown for a while, but I never could adapt myself to that line-breaking behavior... No wonder Github removed it.
Someday I might create my own flavour of markup... until then, I'm using Textile.
While I somewhat agree about Markdown's line-breaking behavior--Github's modification to it is one I'd adopt were I implementing Markdown on a site for people who aren't nerds ("make sure you put two spaces at the end of every line if you want the line break to be real" just isn't going to cut it)--the big problem I always had with Textile is that it tried to do too much. Markdown says, in effect, "Here's a subset of HTML that you use all the time that I'll make really easy, and for anything else you can just embed straight HTML." Textile, on the other hand, says, "I'm a full-on replacement for HTML with all sorts of typographical wow!", and you end up essentially learning another markup language.
(I admit that it didn't help my impression that for a long time, Textile processors couldn't get the very first sentence of my comment correct. Go to the Textile 2.0 processor at http://www.textism.com/tools/textile/index.php, which was the reference implementation for years, and you'll see that a sentence with phrases set aside by double-hyphen em dashes--like this one--will be processed into a struck-out phrase surrounded by single hyphens. This appears to finally be fixed, but that alone was enough to make me switch to Markdown back in the day!)
Remarkbox