Simple markup as a style guide and limiter
Beyond perhaps making authoring easier ,there is a more subtle reason to use simple markup instead of fullHTML, namely that simple markup can be deliberately limited. HTML is avery broad and general formatting language, which means that if you letpeople write in raw HTML they can do all sorts of odd layout things,things that do not necessarily fit into the style you want. Using asimple markup language limits people's ability to be off-the-railscreative in this way.
(While you can do
Optional features are in practice not optional to understand
In a comment on yesterday's entry , Aristotle Pagaltzis suggested that Markdownmight be acceptable to my coworkers in part because:
It is just HTML! You can type HTML and it will come outverbatim. It's not really a separate markup language (simple or not)so much as a shorthand notation for HTML.
So you don't have to use Markdown's syntax instead of HTML. Forget howto write a link in Markdown? Just write it using HTML syntax. Willwork either way.
A little Unix difference that irritates: what word erase erases
I (still) use a number of different Unixes. For the most part theyaren't particularly different in day to day use, but it turns out thatthere is one little difference that really gets to me. That is what TTYword erase (usually Ctrl-W) erases, or the other way to put it, what itstops erasing at.
In most environments, what C-W considers to be a 'word' is 'everythingback to the previous whitespace' (or the start of
The varying appeal of wikitext and other simple markup
After letting the issue sit for a while, we've recently started thinkingabout our wiki trap again (partly because the supportperiod for the OS our wiki is running on is rapidly running out). Oneof the questions for any replacement is whether we'll write the contentin straight HTML or in some simple markup scheme. Having this questionon my mind has made me think about the varying and relative appeal ofwikitext to different people.For this, let's break people up into three different groups
Where my Firefox performance problem seems to be
I've written a fair amount before on how Firefox (doesn't) perform forme , but it's time for what will probably be thefinal update on this (since I don't expect the Firefox people to fixwhatever the core problem is).
The short summary of my problem is garbage collection stalls . Iwas mostly lead to this by stumbling over the MemChaser addon ( via ),which shows the amount of time that Firefox pauses for garbagecollection. When my Firefox session is new
Python 3's print() annoys me (although maybe it shouldn't)
One of a number of changes in Python 3 that I have a visceral unhappyreaction to is the replacement of the print statement by the print() function. On the one hand I sort of understand the 'computer science'perspective on changing it to a function; it moves Python's explicitstatements closer to being purely intrinsic language operators. On theother hand, I just don't like it.
I think that part of the reason I don't like it is that it remains moreor less
Linux is less divergent than commercial Unixes used to be
Today, Trever Miller tweeted :
Tell me again how the Linux fragmentation is any different than theUNIX fragmentation of yore?
To boil my reply and the resulting conversation down, my view is thatLinux is far less fragmented and divergent than commercial Unixes wereback in the days of commercial Unixes. Part but not all of this is dueto everyone having settled on a single hardware platform (yes, I know,ARM may upset this applecart, but not yet).
The reality is that a lot of Linux is common
Why Google's handling of multiple domains on inbound messages is okay
It started with a tweet by @xlerb (Jeb Davis) :
Today I learned that Google thinks they can unilaterally redefineSMTP: (warning: gratuitously shouty forum comments)
To summarize the link: Google is the MX target for all sorts of domains,due to various services they offer. Google's MX servers will now onlyaccept destination addresses in a single domain per transaction; if youtry to RCPT TO to addresses at multiple (Google-hosted) domains inthe same transaction, all but
Why DTrace does not attract people to Solaris very often
Back when Solaris 10 was fresh and new, DTrace was supposed to be oneof its significant competitive advantages, one of the major things thatmade it attractive to system administrators (and organizations). Inpractice Solaris 10 got a tepid reception, DTrace included, despite allof the banging on drums that supporters of Solaris did (and somewhat totheir disbelief, at least in my impression of things). Having now usedDTrace somewhat, I have an opinion on why.
It's pretty simple:
DTrace
A learning experience: internal mail flow should never be allowed to bounce
The university runs a central email system for all undergraduates.Last week that system started bouncing incoming email, and in doingso it taught me an uncomfortable lesson that I now need to apply toour own mail environment.
You see, the university doesn't actually run this email system; almostall of it is outsourced to a third party email provider. While theundergraduate email domain is MX 'd to university machines, they'rejust a relay; they immediately shuffle incoming mail off to the outsideprovider,