I thought Markdown was clearly very silly back when it started gaining traction amongst developer types. There were already so many other better options--even at the time--for plaintext-to-formatted document markup languages.) But still, developers were designing whole apps (CMSes, productivity apps, document management, etc) and plugins around Markdown, sometimes as businesses.
But then I realized, after using it in some apps, that wasn't really what Markdown was about. Markdown is about a bare-minimum amount of styling that is just as readable and at home in plaintext as formatted in HTML. The amount of formatting it supports is small _on purpose_, so that it fits in your brain and doesn't require a toolbar to use. It is _meant_ for things like comment fields, chat programs, commit messages, and so on. Maybe even blog articles. But it certainly is not something you'd want for writing the documentation for an enterprise-grade product.
These days, I write Markdown even in place where it will never be rendered into HTML. Because it's quite readable as-is. (And I wish HN supported it.)
But then I realized, after using it in some apps, that wasn't really what Markdown was about. Markdown is about a bare-minimum amount of styling that is just as readable and at home in plaintext as formatted in HTML. The amount of formatting it supports is small _on purpose_, so that it fits in your brain and doesn't require a toolbar to use. It is _meant_ for things like comment fields, chat programs, commit messages, and so on. Maybe even blog articles. But it certainly is not something you'd want for writing the documentation for an enterprise-grade product.
These days, I write Markdown even in place where it will never be rendered into HTML. Because it's quite readable as-is. (And I wish HN supported it.)