Why the heck are we still using Markdown?
4 hours ago
- #web-development
- #syntax-analysis
- #markdown-criticism
- Markdown is a minimal, legible markup language designed for simple document formatting, similar to C's visibility of output.
- Markdown suffers from feature creep, ambiguous syntax (multiple ways to denote bold/italic), inline HTML vulnerabilities (XSS), and legacy inconsistencies.
- Parsing modern Markdown extensions (like footnotes) requires context-sensitive grammars, making simple transliterators evolve into full compilers.
- The language's design leads to security issues (ReDoS, XSS) and lacks a formal foundation, leading to widespread implementation flaws.
- Alternatives like plain text, MDX, or ReStructuredText also have shortcomings, suggesting a need for a new tool with a build system and unambiguous syntax.