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Comments on Add support for AsciiDoc syntax

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Add support for AsciiDoc syntax

+0
−2

Add support for AsciiDoc syntax.

I find their syntax very intuitive and enjoyable. For example, numbered lists start with just a period; bulleted, a star. Nested lists don't use whitespace. Links are less verbose. Have a look for yourself! This is a quick reference guide and this is a direct comparison to Markdown.

Asciidoctor has done a great job documenting everything. AsciiDoc syntax is automatically rendered on GitHub and GitLab files that have the .adoc extension.

I would expect a per-user default configuration and a possible toggle at the bottom of posts.

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I have some concerns:

Complexity

AsciiDoc is unnecessarily complicated. From what I have seen, Codidact runs just fine on Markdown. Even much larger platform Stack Overflow doesn't seem in that much need of it, despite AsciiDoc having more features.

Worth

Considering the votes on this feature request, it seems that not a lot of users are interested. It seems like something that requires high effort[1] but gives low value in return (considering not a lot of users will use this option).

So a question that may be considered is- Is it worth the limited developer time?

Editing

You mentioned that

I would expect a per-user default configuration and a possible toggle at the bottom of posts.

While it is nice to have a per-user default configuration - think about it. This will divide all the posts into Markdown ones and AsciiDoc ones.

This poses a problem for editing.

If someone fluent with Markdown (which I think most active users are by now) wants to help and make the site better, there will be a "formatting-language" barrier that they will have to overcome if they come across a poorly written AsciiDoc post. Vice-versa for when someone fluent with AsciiDoc wants to improve a poorly written Markdown post. While I guess this barrier will not be so big, but it certainly poses an inconvenience.


  1. I'm not sure if this is just a two-minute implementation - but I think it will take time - to first add the option - then make the documentation for it in the Help Center - that too for all communities - and this isn't even taking into account the customizations some communities may have asked for. ↩︎

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Thanks for explaining. Here are my thoughts. (1 comment)
Thanks for explaining. Here are my thoughts.
mcp‭ wrote 9 months ago · edited 9 months ago

I appreciate you explaining. Downvotes without reason are unhelpful. I didn't know it to be complicated to implement. We'll see how time favors this request. As a workaround, I may just draft in AsciiDoc and seek an AsciiDoc to Markdown converter.

SO is a better comparison. And really formatting on a Q&A forum tends to be more minimal than formatting in a README. Not much to gain between ## vs == and I do prefer Markdown code fencing in this context.

The only syntax I'd really miss is the AsciiDoc link and list syntax. Any way those can be supported without breaking existing functionality? I'd settle happily for that compromise.