These are the benefits of LaTex - logical rather than physical structure. But LaYeX, strikingly beautiful though its output is, has not taken off outside computer science journal articles.
Two opposing points: (1) on reddit, I'll often check the markup result, going back and forth (esp checking URLs - probably less important for other writing), and that seems inefficient. I did the same with LaTeX; (2) when I read the text in the rendered format, I'll pick up different typos, perhaps because the line-spacing and font are different and so my eyes parse it differently (like that trick with "of" doubled at end and start of a line).
For a year, I used a homegrown markup language for uni notes. It was fun to use, seemed helpful, but I think was primarily self-indulgent.
Maybe I should try it again - I'm currently using either plaintext for documentation (which isn't really clear enough); or open office Word (which takes forever to startup, doesn't feel accessible (can't just cat or head or tail or more or less or grep it), has non-vi keybindings and generally is a pain (though I complement their job of copying MS Word).
Finally - I'm kinda surprised at markdown's success (and it really is successful). I would expect WYSIWYG to be more user-friendly. I think one factor is that markup is optional in the context where it's been successful (like reddit). In other words, it may be "successful" because (1) it's not actually needed or used much (I mean, typos/grammos are endemic online, right?) (2) it has the gentlest possible learning curve if you do want to use it. Does this mean it would be terrible at more serious uses? Or that it is ideal to disrupt incumbent formatting methods? (disrupt defined: "initially worse at key features, but has features appealing to different users such as convenience/price/accessibility").
It would be interesting to measure the percentage of reddit comments that actually use any markdown at all. I think it would be very low, something like 1-2%
Two opposing points: (1) on reddit, I'll often check the markup result, going back and forth (esp checking URLs - probably less important for other writing), and that seems inefficient. I did the same with LaTeX; (2) when I read the text in the rendered format, I'll pick up different typos, perhaps because the line-spacing and font are different and so my eyes parse it differently (like that trick with "of" doubled at end and start of a line).
For a year, I used a homegrown markup language for uni notes. It was fun to use, seemed helpful, but I think was primarily self-indulgent. Maybe I should try it again - I'm currently using either plaintext for documentation (which isn't really clear enough); or open office Word (which takes forever to startup, doesn't feel accessible (can't just cat or head or tail or more or less or grep it), has non-vi keybindings and generally is a pain (though I complement their job of copying MS Word).
Finally - I'm kinda surprised at markdown's success (and it really is successful). I would expect WYSIWYG to be more user-friendly. I think one factor is that markup is optional in the context where it's been successful (like reddit). In other words, it may be "successful" because (1) it's not actually needed or used much (I mean, typos/grammos are endemic online, right?) (2) it has the gentlest possible learning curve if you do want to use it. Does this mean it would be terrible at more serious uses? Or that it is ideal to disrupt incumbent formatting methods? (disrupt defined: "initially worse at key features, but has features appealing to different users such as convenience/price/accessibility").
It would be interesting to measure the percentage of reddit comments that actually use any markdown at all. I think it would be very low, something like 1-2%
BTW: You had my vote at ZX81 is that wrong?