Thanks. The vacation is interrupted because I have to get the car in for repairs before it rains, otherwise, the interior will also be destroyed. But, I’ll arrange for find a few days to get away again. 
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Thanks. No one was hurt. We stood on the porch of our mountain cabin helplessly watching the car being “destroyed.” At least we we not driving at the time.
I don’t know how “holy” is was but that made me laugh! 
At the risk of making sweeping generalisations and offending everyone all over again.
No one should be offended by the sharing of different perspectives on markdown. It is hardly a matter of life and death. The great thing about this forum is the unique level of kindness combined with knowledgeable professionalism. This is a rare combination on the web. It is one we must guard.
I do this if I need to add images - I agree Markdown is not great for this, it’s better just for text).
I think this is the main point to keep in mind. The problem I have with markdown is that, as I stated above, I often need tables, images, footnotes, attached related documents, etc., in what I’m writing. This includes many of my notes. If my writing was primarily text, markdown would be ideal for all of the supporting reasons given. But once one gets past simple text, the friction increases.
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So, CSS and HTML are plaintext but Markdown is not? Um, ok …
Of course they are meant to be viewed as plaintext, that’s the whole point of source files! They are human readable plaintext. There is value in that.
And that was the raison d’être of Markdown, simple human readable text formatting. To some people, there is value in the Markdown file beyond the renderablity.
If the only reason is for them to be rendered, then just as with your preference for working in Rich Text directly, why would anyone still be writing CSS or HTML? Just use RapidWeaver and be done with it!
Likewise, programmers should eschew writing plaintext source files, the only purpose of which it to generate machine code, and just write machine code. A logical, albeit absurd, conclusion of your argument.
People find value in Markdown other than the ability to render documents in other formats. That you can’t see this does not render (pun!) it false.
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Your post does an excellent job of extracting the points most important to users of plain text and Markdown.
I would just add that modern Markdown tools significantly enable the use of images in Markdown documents. I’ve been content with a text-only Daily Note in the past, but with NotePlan I’m gradually remembering to include images, too. Drag and drop of image files makes this easy. Editors like iA Writer and Byword do this, too, and I’m sure there are others.
Oh man, that sucks. Pretty sure the insurance company will total that car. It’ll wind up on an auction block somewhere and sold as a salvage title. Good luck on a new car…
Guys… just use what you like. If you like Rich Text, there’s lots of that available. If you like Markdown… likewise! We have an embarrassment of riches in text editors and note taking apps. Something out there will fit the bill for you.
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I hope they do but I doubt it. It is an expansive car, I suspect repairing it will be less expensive than totaling it. We’ll see.
Yep, use the right tool for the job. (Gals too! 
)
I live on a 2.5 acre wooded lot, and occasionally things fall down, branches and even entire trees (unlike @Bmosbacker I dodged a bullet last week as a tornado touched down less than two kilometers from me!). I have a hand saw that is fine for dealing with the smaller branches (5" or less). For larger jobs I borrow my neighbor’s chainsaw. Some folks might prefer the chainsaw for everything.
It is fine to have different preferences. And to discuss why you have said preferences. But as I noted previously, presenting you opinion as an absolute truth does not make for productive discussion in any forum.
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I don’t believe I did, I was careful to qualify my comments. But, if my post seemed too absolutize to all, my apologies.
Not you!
And not most people. And those that do may not intend to. It is important to look at what you type to see if it can be misinterpreted. As the message I am responding to makes clear can such misinterpretation can occur!
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Not that I’m aware of. The default is to see the straight markdown. I know some folks do have it displaying the renered format all the time. I don’t I find it actually far more confusing to use and edit and work with than the markdown. Then again I still use (* for comments *) and have hot keys to convert them into whatever flavor is required in the app I am using 
So sorry about the car. Glad you were not in it or drive at the time.
OTOH at least there is Uber nearby.
Thanks. We are thankful that no one was hurt and we were not driving at the time. It is amazing how much damage hail can cause in five minutes.
Glad to read that!
As a more fun note, a couple of weeks ago we had a very quick hailstorm here in Madrid (!!). My wife was doing some Roomba maintenance outside and rushed in. I saw her and bragged: “It’s nothing, have you ever done this” and went outside, shirtless. About 15 seconds later, chickpea-sized hailstones were falling on me, and boy did they hit hard! Corollary: don’t mess with mother Nature.
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On May 5th we went out to dinner at a local favorite restaurant. And there was a hail storm. Two of the younger wait staff had never seen hail, and did as you did, running outside to enjoy the hail, although they did so with their shirts on. We enjoyed mother nature’s fury sipping wine at out table.
Ten miles away at our home there was not hail nor rain.
Indeed! I’m not exaggerating when I say some of the hail stones hitting my car were nearly size of baseballs, hence the extensive damage.
…Markdown minimises that overhead. For most use cases:
- A small set of rich text markup (headers, bold/italic, lists)
- A small set of semantic structure (headers, lists).
- Images and Links *
And it is easily extensible by HTML content or blocks. Or even other blocks of (possibly dynamically generated) content. Just include an escape sequence.
* Images and links can be thought of and written as HTML content, too. But Markdown provides simplified syntax. Again minimising overhead for the most common use cases (on the web). Same is, de facto, true for simple tables, though not part of Gruber’s original spec, I believe.
Markdown is not about providing very good syntax for everything. It’s about striking a balance. It is minimising overhead for (let’s say) 95% or 98% of use cases for web writing. While remaining readable, portable and reliable as plain text. And being easily extensible for the other 2 or 5% of use cases.
That’s the beauty of Markdown.
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In the words of last man standing, “that was father nature”. 
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