Wes Maldonado: Data Junkie

This post about Textile reminded me that I should ramble about alternative syntaxes for marking up content. I’m lazy and could never write validating XHTML by hand so I decided to generate markup from a more simple source, markdown.

Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

Markdown

Markdown is one of several light weight methods for converting “conventional” email syntax into XHTML. I use it to write everything from my resume to these blog posts thanks to a wordpress plugin.

Compare and contrast the Markdown syntax for a list with the XHTML version:

Markdown

* one

* two

XHTML

<ul>

<li>one</li>

<li>two</li>

</ul>

I’m a fan of using the power of plain text whenever possible. The clean syntax of markdown (heck, even textile) helps me focus on the content over the presentation ultimately letting me blog faster.

Markdown or Textile? Can’t decide? Try both!

I’ve said before that you should learn one editor and learn it well! This video by Vim’s creator is another way to get better at using Vim.

I’m continually freaked out about the number of programmers and technologists that can’t use one editor well. If you’re a vim user but haven’t felt like you’re getting great benefit from it these 7 tips will save you time and make your text editing a fun experience. Anyone interested in a text editing work shop in Seattle?

A large percentage of time behind the computer screen is spent on editing text. Investing a little time in learning more efficient ways to use a text editor pays itself back fairly quickly. This presentation will give an overview of the large number of ways of using Vim in a smart way to edit programs, structured text and documentation.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2538831956647446078