Re: Proposal: Use Markdown syntax for README and other documentation

[Bart Schaefer <schaefer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, May 18, 2022 at 9:03 PM dana <dana@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> I don't feel *super* strongly about this, but i have thought before that
> the README/NEWS dichotomy was slightly confusing

Yeah, I don't recall how we got into the habit of putting an
increasingly large "incompatibilities" section into README.  It made
some sense for 4.2 to 5.0 and even from 5.0 to 5.3, but at this point
some of the prose in the older parts of that is more confusing than
helpful.  The NEWS file on the other hand is sort of a Cliffs Notes
version of the ChangeLog -- condensed but with discussion of the high
points.

> and that maybe the
> average person would prefer it if the README just had a shorter overview

I certainly wouldn't object to moving the older (in)compatibility
discussions somewhere else.  How many people are likely to be
upgrading all the way from 4.2 at this point?

> I don't think it'd be a big change to have the README standardise on some
> sub-set of Markdown to make it look a little nicer on code-hosting sites,
> as long as we continued to avoid the more advanced/noisy features like
> images and hyper-links

I find myself unable to muster enthusiasm on either side.  My personal
feeling is that markdown is just annoying, then I also find GUI repo
tools annoying.