When we read texts, whether on the Internet, in a magazine or in any book, we expect a certain layout. For example, we use bold to highlight important words, we distinguish the title of a document at first glance and we use presentations in the form of lists to structure certain parts of the document. Such formatting seems obvious to us, and behind our computer keyboard, when we write our texts, all this poses no problem for us: we change the size of the characters, we insert dashes and put certain words and expressions in bold. Any word processor offers its users many possibilities for the layout of the texts they edit.
Yet all is not so simple. For your part, you simply select the text to be formatted, and your software gives it the attributes you request. With Word software, you don’t see the actual source text, along with its tags. And so much the better, to tell the truth: such a text is almost unreadable for a human being.
Any text editor can write HTML or LaTeX, but the result is difficult to decipher for ordinary mortals. And that’s exactly what the Markdown markup language wants to change. He wants to take advantage of the best of both worlds, and be understood by both machines and men. To format text, Markdown uses intuitive elements. In this case, even the text accompanied by its tags will be easy enough for men to understand.
