Re: Markdown, tables and CSV

[John MACFARLANE <jgm-TVLZxgkOlNX2fBVCVOL8/A@public.gmane.org>]

+++ Martin Fenner [May 22 16 21:42 ]:
>   In my view the current table implementations supported
>   by Pandoc do their job, but don't look like a good fit
>   for the Markdown philosophy of keeping things simple yet
>   powerful.

If "simple yet powerful" is what you want, HTML syntax for
specifying tables is great.

But the Markdown philosophy is not about being "simple but
powerful."  It's about having source files that are
human-readable text files.

Quoting from John Gruber's original Markdown syntax page:

> The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax
> is to make it as readable as possible. The idea is that a
> Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as
> plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with
> tags or formatting instructions.

CSV is simple (though not as flexible as HTML formatting).
But it doesn't pass this test.

This design goal is really important to keep in mind when
comparing Markdown to alternatives, which are often easier
to write (because, for example, sublists are indicated by
`**` instead of indentation), but don't look as natural
to read.

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