From: Leslie Viljoen <leslieviljoen@...>
Date: 2007-04-12T18:20:47+09:00
Subject: Re: for user submitted content on website, use textile or html?

On 4/12/07, Brian Candler <B.Candler@pobox.com> wrote:
> > what's the main reason people use another markup language for user
> > posted content on website?
>
> In order to make their users' lives miserable, I believe :-(
>
> I've lost track of how many different markups I've had to learn: BBcode,
> Twiki, rdoc, markdown, whatever Rubygarden uses, MoinMoin, Trac, pod,
> probably others. All have different ways of expressing the most basic
> things, like a hyperlink or a level 1 heading. When I come across a website
> which uses a different one again, like Textile, I cringe.
>
> BBcode even uses [b]..[/b], presumably only to be different to <b>..</b>

I hate it too. One good thing is MediaWiki's toolbar - click on a
button that looks like large text and it will put in a large text
example for you.

These HTML alternatives were not invented for security but for ease of
use, which is ironic

My hope is that a victor will emerge and most wikis will adapt to
support it as an option. Markdown is my favourite because I think the
text looks most like the final product, it's just that Markdown
desperately needs a syntax for tables.