July 08, 2004
HTML Pig Latin
I do not understand the benefits offered by so-called "text-to-html" converters (?), ala Markdown or Textile.
For the unfamiliar, the above-mentioned are tools which translate alternate text codes into HTML code. For example, if I typed *hello world* into Textile, it would translate that into <em>hello world</em>.
You're thinking, "This is nothing more than a markup language for HTML. And HTML is already a markup language."
You are wise.
Just when I had run out of things to learn, here comes this gem.
How is typing "An [example](http://url.com/ "Title")" any easier or faster than typing "<An <a href="http://url.com/" Title="Title">example>/a>"?
It's not. Even though the normal HTML version contains more characters to type, you can fly through it because it's a language you already know.
If you're like me, typing out basic HTML for links, images, tables, etc. flows as easily as iced-tea in the summer. The last thing I need is some other language to cloud my mind and step in as a middleman between what my fingers have to type (this new language) and what my brain is thinking (my beloved HTML).
Frankly, even if you were first starting to learn HTML (or a healthy HTML alternative), it's simply easier to learn and make sense out of HTML than these cryptic simplifications. If I told you that one asterisk equals italics and two asterisks means bold, how often do you think you'd forget that or get the two confused?
It's not just because you're getting older and more senile that you'd forget these, it's because they are completely random and contain no internal meaning.
How self-explanatory would it be for you to "View Source", see an asterisk, and determine that it means italics?
Quick, tell me what this code does:
**hello world**
See what I mean? And I just told you what the silly code does at the beginning of this post! (?)
For the same reasons pig latin is harder to speak or write than regular English.
I must be missing something. I know, having read both of their sites for months, that the developers behind both of the products slandered in this post are intelligent to a high degree. Not only that, I respect them.
So it baffles me to think that these venerable men have spent countless hours pouring over software that is so utterly useless and devising clever alternate languages for HTML.
These tools are like a hokey, web-based Pig Latin Translator forwarded to you by an annoying co-worker, but without the fun and goofy allure of the real thing.
Posted by jtnt at July 8, 2004 12:48 AM in Web Development | TrackBack