Why does Stack Exchange use Markdown? I think HTML could be fine as well. Does Markdown have more advantages over HTML?
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1SE does allow a small set of HTML, see meta.stackexchange.com/q/1777/213671– gunr2171Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 14:38
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2There are other better reasons, but it's partly because Jeff likes Markdown– Jonathan GarberCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 14:39
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7Do you expect all the pets.se, cooking.se and similar non-technical site users to be fluent in HTML? Markdown is a much simpler notation that is much easier to grasp and use.– OdedCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 14:40
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It's standard, that's why. Like OpenID and other standards they follow too.– Shadow WizardCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 14:41
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2It's a half way house between bland text and full HTML. You don't need so much knowledge to use it. Even for programming sites it still makes sense. I must admit, despite being a programmer I have never learned HTML because I find it insanely boring– Richard TingleCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 14:43
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@RichardTingle I would've avoided it if at all possible. However, apparently (without my knowledge) as some point in the past few years I became a de-facto web developer. Oh well. Them's the breaks.– User1000547Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 14:46
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6Ehm people, am I missing something? This seems like a fair enough question to me. Why the flood of downvotes?– BartCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 14:55
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@Bart I think people are interpreting this as a feature request, which is frankly unfair and I agree with you– Richard TingleCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 15:02
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6@Bart Sir, I am a big boy now, I can handle that pressure.(sobbing in the dark corner alone)– Ave MaleficumCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 15:04
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I'm sure you can @AveMaleficum. I'm just baffled, that's all.– BartCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 15:04
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@AveMaleficum I'd give you a +1 just for that comment, sadly you already have it– Richard TingleCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 15:05
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@Bart because of this: "I think HTML could be fine as well" - people simply disagree with this statement.– Shadow WizardCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 15:19
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Pff, if that's all it takes @ShadowWizard ...– BartCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 15:20
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2 Answers
These are the reasons I can think of:
It's easy: Using markdown doesn't require any technical knowledge whatsoever. The syntax is so simple and it's very easy for people with any level of technical skill.
It's fast: It speeds up the workflow significantly. You don't have to bother about getting the HTML markup right. Markdown does it for you.
It's clean: Markdown creates perfectly formed HTML for you. You don't have to worry about improperly nested tags, unclosed tags or anything. Markdown takes care of it.
It's suitable for all workflows: Stack Overflow is not the only site that uses Markdown. AFAIK, all the Stack Exchange sites use Markdown for formatting. As Oded said in the comments below the question, you can't expect the users of pets.se or gaming.se to know HTML. Markdown is not as hard to learn. If you can write a simple smiley, you can use Markdown. It's that simple!
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1Indeed. Instead you have to worry about unclosed markdown segments and incompatibilities between segments (e.g. code blocks and lists).
</devils-advocate-mode>Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 14:47 -
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1@minitech: I realized that mistake only after the 5 minutes grace period, and then thought "Oh, minitech would edit this anyway, so why should I!". Thanks, btw :) Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 16:02
The first and foremost reason to use markdown instead of plain HTML may very well be security.
Just think what code-injection nightmare embedded <script \> tags could be.
It's probably easier to build a simple markdown language than to sanitize whatever HTML code users will throw at you.
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3No, it’s not. Sanitizing HTML is pretty easy, and you have to do it anyways to support Markdown (which supports all HTML – well, probably not
<plaintext>and<xmp>).– Ry-Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 15:10 -
My guess is that if you are handling markdown, then you can treat a subset of HTML just as the other markdown, and escape all the rest. I haven't checked, but there may be quite a difference between the HTML the user writes on an answer and the HTML that is displayed.– AgostinoCommented Feb 26, 2014 at 15:18
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1There is a big difference – because it’s sanitized. At least, I hope it’s sanitized. Having each HTML element supported treated as part of the Markdown syntax sounds error-prone.– Ry-Commented Feb 26, 2014 at 15:21