the.com/markdown
Formatting for people who think HTML tags are a cry for help.
means A lightweight way to format text using plain symbols like asterisks and dashes, which then convert into styled HTML.
from Coined in the early 2000s by John Gruber (with help from Aaron Swartz on the syntax), who built it as a reaction against writing raw HTML by hand — the name itself plays on 'markup,' the family of languages (like HTML) it was designed to be a simpler, more human cousin of.
- invented by
- John Gruber, 2004, out of pure spite for angle brackets
- asterisks matter
- one star italicizes, two bolds, three ruins your day
- secret power
- renders everywhere, from GitHub to your group chat notes
- dirty truth
- every flavor of it is slightly incompatible with every other