Markup, not HTML, for source code
Jeff Atwood’s idea to use HTML for his upcoming stackoverflow.com site is not a terrible one, except for one thing: source code. Even inside <pre> tags, < and & characters aren’t escaped. So instead of saying
if y < 32:
x = (y << 3) & 0xFF
you have to write
if y < 32:
x = (y << 3) & 0xFF
Please, no!
Admittedly, it wouldn’t be hard for them to have their back-end convert these characters to HTML entities if they’re inside a <pre> tag. But then you can ask, is it really HTML anymore?
And would it correctly interpret “if n<pre: x >>= 3”?
Even apart from all that, however, I much prefer the simplicity and relative beauty of a good markup language (read: Textile or Markdown). And it’s hardly a learning barrier if you’ve got a pop-up “help window” nearby, like reddit or this blog do (see “formatting help” below).
15 May 2008 by Ben add a comment