Markdown preferences

[Rob]

Curious what other Leonistas use when writing plain text (not coding). Over the many years of using Leo, I have used markdown (md), multi-markdown (mmd), rst and org mode (experimented some, but don't really understand it). Haven't tried asciidoc yet. My current writing practice is:

• Write in rst if I need an output document in multiple formats (LaTeX, html or odt).
• Write in md (or mmd) for quick and easy stuff; just capturing information and usually store in external files.
• Write directly in LaTeX or html if there's no need to convert to something else. Leo abbreviations makes this pretty easy.

As I see it:

Plain markdown (GitHub style or multi-markdown)

Pros:

1. Quick (easy to write).
2. Very easy to read.
3. Any plain text editor can open and edit.
4. Leo supports in @auto-md mode.
5. Pandoc converts md (and mmd) files easily to any other supported format (as far as I know).

Cons:

1. Limited syntax for complex documents.
2. Not ideal for converting to LaTeX or html w/o additional work (unless it's a simple document).

RST (reSTructured Text)

Pros:

1. Well documented syntax.
2. Comprehensive (easily supports footnotes, internal and external links and other key document elements).
3. Easy to write in @rst nodes in Leo.
4. Output files from rst3 command are easy to open and read in external text editors.
5. Pandoc easily converts output files to any other supported formats.

Cons:

1. Steeper learning curve than plain markdown.
2. Not as easy to read (unless you understand the syntax).

Not enough experience w/ org mode and none w/ asciidoc to comment. There are a few others floating around which I haven't tried yet.

If you'd like 'weigh in', I'd like to know which are your 'go-to' plain text writing format(s) and why? What are your use-case applications and the perceived pros (and perhaps cons) of each?

Rob...

[Chris George]

I write fiction, nonfiction, and some technical documents (not so much anymore).

For fiction I use plain text. Anything more is simply a distraction.

For nonfiction, I use rst as I learned it along with Leo. Links, bold, italics etc. are easy with it. I could probably have used markdown but by the time it "appeared" I already had invested time and effort in learning rst.

For the technical stuff I was doing at the last job I used Sphinx to leverage my knowledge of rst.

I looked at asciidoc but it is really overkill for what I do now.

Chris

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[jkn]

I currently just use @file and write in mediawiki format. I then use pandoc and a makefile outside of Leo to convert to ... PDF, mainly. This is for short technical summary reports. The main reason I

use mediawiki as the original format is that I sometimes also want to put stuff like this on an internal wiki

This is definitely a sub-optimal arrangement, and I would like to use something else, but it does get the job done. If (say) ascidoc can be used is a similar way, and I could also generate mediawiki format

from it, then I'd probably switch, if only because (a) I'd like to learn a new format, and (b) I have a mild interest in different markdown languages. If it mattered enough I'd like to write in LaTex,

but for now we will keep that to my CV/Resume...

[Matt Wilkie]

I use markdown most of the time, because I've learned it, and that largely due to the amount of time spent in the Stack Exchange network and now GitHub. However I increasingly chafe under markdown's limitations and have targetted as Asciidoc as my escape path. I tried rst but balked at the learning curve.

What I really want is to write in rich text (for ease) and save in asciidoc or similar (for reliability, future proofing, and diff viewing / version control). I like headings, bold, italic, code formatting, being able to embed pictures and float them left or right, and tables. For years I've thought such a creature was inevitable and just around the corner; not so!

-matt

[Offray Vladimir Luna Cárdenas]

Hi,

I use Pandoc's Markdown [1] for complex texts (technical docs, meeting notes and so on) and Markdeep[2] for quick publishing on the web and sane defaults. I'm now implementing a workflow to translate for the first to the second and vice versa. Pandoc filters give me the flexibility I need in case the original syntax is not good enough to write complex documents and even embedding LaTeX macros without the need to go full LaTeX. I just add the complexity I need when I need it (see for example [3] and its source code [4] that is mostly Pandoc's Markdown with custom filters).

[1] https://pandoc.org/
[2] https://casual-effects.com/markdeep/
[3] https://mutabit.com/repos.fossil/documentaton/uv/es/documentaton-0-2-x-breve.pdf
[4] https://mutabit.com/repos.fossil/documentaton/dir?ci=tip&name=es/capitulos

Cheers,

Offray