Building a Markdown-like language, shaped by community feedback

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44864285

by Forgret • 12 months ago

1 5 12 months ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi Hacker News!

I’m planning to create a new markup language, similar to Markdown, but with a more modern, flexible syntax. The goal is to keep it simple to use while making it more powerful and better suited to real user needs.

The key aspect of this project is that it will be shaped entirely by community input and feedback. I want everyone interested to have a say in the syntax design, features, and overall functionality.

If you have ideas, suggestions, or specific features you’d like to see, please share! I’m eager to discuss and incorporate your thoughts into the project.

Let’s build something useful and user-friendly together!

al_borland2• 12 months ago

A camel is a horse designed by a committee.

It seems there is no shortage of markup languages. The benefits of markdown are simply its ubiquity. It has been shown time and time again that a technically better solution doesn’t win out based on technical merits alone. Every time I think about using something other than markdown, I need to stop myself, as the universal support is a bigger and more important “feature” than anything other markup languages may have. This popularity is in spite of the original markdown author not using it for all this stuff others use it for, and speaking out against its use for anything beyond basic web page generation.

jones16182• 12 months ago

True. Wide-adoption makes markdown hard to beat.

However, I _would_ like to see a better alternative. My #1 feature request would be simple styling (beyond bold, italic, etc.) Specifically, some way to compactly color and highlight text. Something like [C#4c4|aaa]Text[/C] maybe where format is #{text-color-rgb}|{background-color-rgb} where background is optional. Likewise, something similar for font like [F:10pt,monospace]Test[/F]. Extra credit for named styles: [$danger=C#484|#cc8] and then [S:$danger]I'm dangerous[/S].

al_borland2• 12 months ago

The problems with this ends up being the result becomes less human readable. At some point, why not just write HTML? You already have open and close brackets in your example. This is HTML with extra steps.

If the issue is the extra effort in typing some extra characters, emmet solved this a decade ago.

Forgret• 12 months ago

Thanks for the idea, it sounds interesting, I'll try to simplify the syntax for better understanding.

1. Inline styling with @

@color#4c4,bg#aaa Text @

color#hex for text color

bg#hex for background color

Multiple props separated by commas

Ends with another @ (so you can nest easier without clashing with brackets)

Example:

@color#fff,bg#f00 Danger!@

2. Fonts with @font

@font10pt,mono Code sample@

10pt = font size

mono = monospace (could also be serif, sans)

3. Named styles

@style$danger=color#484,bg#cc8@ @danger I'm dangerous@

First line defines the style name

Second line uses it with just @name …@

jones1618 What do you think?

Building a Markdown-like language, shaped by community feedback

Related Stories