On: Why I stick with Perl

[nailer]

I don't get Markdown. Why make end-users learn a yet another markup language to make bold text or a table (unless all your users are news.yc readers, rather than the general public)?

Why not give them an actual bold text button? It's not hard.

[mr_excellent → nailer]

Markdown is probably the simplest and prettiest of the text markup formats.

And to answer your question, it's easier to hit the asterisk key than to reach for the mouse to hit the "italics" button.

[nailer → mr_excellent]

Most people have no idea of what the asterisk key does, and have no experience in markup languages.

I guess I expect tools written in a language which emphasises usability for developers to do the same for users.

[sartak → nailer]

reddit, well-known for being written in Python, also uses markdown. So does this site, written in Arc.

What's your point?

[tptacek → sartak]

This site does not use Markdown.