
GitHub satanically messing with Markdown – changes 666 to DCLXVI - YeGoblynQueenne
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44619165/github-satanically-messing-with-markdown-changes-666-to-dclxvi?rq=1
======
tzs
Reddit also messes with numbers followed by periods at the start of lines. It
doesn't convert them to roman numerals, but it does infer from their presence
that you are trying to make a numbered list, and it apparently also assumes
that you have no idea how to count, so it renumbers the list for you.

This regularly screws up posts in /r/chess. Someone might post something like
this:

    
    
      1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4 g4
      5.O-O gxf3 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Qxf3 Bc5+
      8.Kh1 d6 9.c3 Nc6 10.d4 Nxd4 11.cxd4 Bxd4
      12.Bxf4 Nf6 13.Bg5 Rg8 14.Qh5+ Rg6
    

and Reddit changes it to this:

    
    
      1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4 g4
      2.O-O gxf3 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Qxf3 Bc5+
      3.Kh1 d6 9.c3 Nc6 10.d4 Nxd4 11.cxd4 Bxd4
      4.Bxf4 Nf6 13.Bg5 Rg8 14.Qh5+ Rg6

~~~
ssivark
The whole value proposition of markdown was supposed to be that a
writer/reader need not create a detailed mental model to mentally parse the
text. All of these are examples show why markdown (parsing/specification) is
"broken" for use cases outside the straight and narrow. No big deal for now...
Platforms which don't want to punish their users will accrete special cases
and escape characters -- till some time in the future where the language will
start feeling heavy with un-intuitive behavior. And so the cycle goes. :smh:

~~~
baroffoos
The point of the numbering changes is if you want to insert a new item half
way through the list you don't have to change every single line. Unfortunately
it probably confuses people more often than it helps them.

~~~
c3534l
I've come to the conclusion that the worst thing about how developers design
their products is the existence of "features" that override the user without
the user ever telling it to. It assumes you wanted to do something other than
was was inputted without getting further input from the user indicating they
wanted to carry out that action. Pretty much every massive technology fuck-up
in my life has been the result of the computer doing something other than what
I told it to do and me not realizing or not being able to fix it after it did
so. Things like "open restored document" helpfully deleting the older,
unrestored document for me, attaching signatures to emails when I didn't
configure a signature, etc. I want to start a movement that forces us to ask
every new feature "did the user tell the computer to do X and if so, where is
it indicated that X will happen?" There are a million examples when you look
out for it and they're all infuriating.

~~~
coldpie
Ehhhh I agree with your general point, but I'd argue Markdown's list behavior
shouldn't be tarred with this brush. It's a reasonable feature that makes
perfect sense if you understand it, but in practice it didn't survive contact
with the real world. Nothing is perfect, after all.

~~~
JadeNB
> It's a reasonable feature that makes perfect sense if you understand it, but
> in practice it didn't survive contact with the real world.

I think the same argument can be made for almost every "the machine knows
better than the user" decision, so it seems to me that this is pointing out
that the Markdown list behaviour _should_ be tarred with exactly the same
brush.

------
misterdoubt
Kind of disappointing to see that level of testing failure. A leap to assume
there is something specifically strange about `666` without even trying
`665`...

~~~
bfred_it
Which link are you more likely to click on?

\- GitHub satanically messing with Markdown - changes 666 to DCLXVI

\- GitHub changes numbers to Roman numerals in lists

I’d call it functional clickbait.

------
aembleton
In the CSS for github [1], there is this

    
    
      ol ol, ul ol {
        list-style-type: lower-roman;
      }
    

I think that will result in all items starting with numbers in lists using
Roman numerals.

1\.
[https://github.githubassets.com/assets/frameworks-481a47a969...](https://github.githubassets.com/assets/frameworks-481a47a96965f6706fb41bae0d14b09a.css)

------
Animats
Can we have BBCode back? That was better.

~~~
laumars
Better for some things / worse for others.

It was _much_ easier to write parsers for though. Most of the BBCode tags
could be rendered with simple regex substitutions.

~~~
contravariant
>It was much easier to write parsers for though. Most of the BBCode tags could
be rendered with simple regex substitutions.

Nevermind. Let's not bring BBCode back.

~~~
laumars
On the whole I'd agree. When markdown is done right it's pretty awesome.
However I'd still take BBcode over buggy half implemented markdown parsers
like the one we have on HN. At least [i] is a less common token than * --
which leads to no end of edits when I've absent-mindedly emphasised something
that should have been bullet pointed.

...but yes, I do agree that markdown is definitely better when it's done
right.

------
mike_hock
So they change enumeration lists to Roman numerals. That's it, right?

------
tumetab1
Can get an (2017) on the title?

------
ben_jones
This seems like click bait to me - as if Github is censoring 666. But they
aren't. It's just a really weird markdown bug having to do with the '.' which
immediately follows the number. It's explained in the actual SO post.

It's a cool post but it has nothing to do with censorship. Am I the only one
who was misled?

~~~
manojlds
Neither HN nor SO are clickbaity. The user asking the question is saying
there's something creepy happening, not that GitHub is censoring.

> which immediately follows the number. It's explained in the actual SO post.

Yeah, which is why it is on HN, what's your point?

~~~
dang
Please don't respond rudely, even if another commenter is mistaken.

------
CHsurfer
It's a nice touch that the number of upvotes (09:10 Standard European Time)is
also '666'

------
alricb
It should probably change it to χξϛ
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast))

