@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ I'm mystified by the popularity of Markdown among writers. I can agree that it's
In longer-form writing, however, its shortcomings become evident. Like programming languages, the best writing tools maximize expressive possibilities, and minimize constraints. But Markdown is hugely constrained. First and worst, Markdown isn't semantic. It only knows about formatting, and in that regard, isn't that much of an improvement on tools like Microsoft Word. Second, even as a formatting-notation tool, it's limited to a small subset of the already-small set of formatting tags permitted in HTML. Third, it can't be extended by an author.
In longer-form writing, however, its shortcomings become evident. Like programming languages, the best writing tools maximize expressive possibilities, and minimize constraints. But Markdown is hugely constrained. First and worst, Markdown isn't semantic. It only knows about formatting, and in that regard, isn't that much of an improvement on tools like Microsoft Word. Second, even as a formatting-notation tool, it's limited to a small subset of the already-small set of formatting tags permitted in HTML. Third, it can't be extended by an author.
An animating principle of Pollen, as explained in the @secref["Backstory" #:doc '(lib "pollen/scribblings/pollen.scrbl")], is that after 20 years, we ought to move beyond thinking of HTML as an source format. Since Markdown is just well-disguised HTML, a vote for Markdown is really a vote to continue the status quo (albeit with fewer angle brackets). For me, that's not good enough. I'm ready for the tools to expand to fit my ideas; I don't want to keep cutting down my ideas to fit the tools.
An animating principle of Pollen, as explained in the @secref["Backstory" #:doc '(lib "pollen/scribblings/pollen.scrbl")], is that after 20 years, we ought to move beyond thinking of HTML as a source format. Since Markdown is just well-disguised HTML, a vote for Markdown is really a vote to continue the status quo (albeit with fewer angle brackets). For me, that's not good enough. I'm ready for the tools to expand to fit my ideas; I don't want to keep cutting down my ideas to fit the tools.
All that said, if you genuinely prefer Markdown, I'm not looking to pry it from your fingers. Pollen has excellent Markdown support (due entirely to Greg Hendershott's excellent @link["https://github.com/greghendershott/markdown/"]{Markdown parser} for Racket). It makes Markdown more useful.
All that said, if you genuinely prefer Markdown, I'm not looking to pry it from your fingers. Pollen has excellent Markdown support (due entirely to Greg Hendershott's excellent @link["https://github.com/greghendershott/markdown/"]{Markdown parser} for Racket). It makes Markdown more useful.
