Criticism of Microsoft's LaTeX Implementation in GitHub Flavored Markdown
By
joesuf4
Crusty in the right places. Worth the chew.
Summary
This article criticizes Microsoft's modification of GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM), specifically their decision to repurpose the isolated dollar sign as a LaTeX delimiter to support MathJax. The author argues this betrays the original design philosophy of John Gruber's Markdown, which prioritized simplicity and ease of implementation. The piece expresses strong frustration that Microsoft chose to accommodate MathJax (described as "antiquated, ugly crapware") rather than promoting KaTeX, suggesting financial motivations behind the decision.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledThe point of John Gruber's Markdown syntax was that it was easy to work with; not just from an authoring standpoint, but from an implementer's perspective as well.
GFM stayed true to that design goal right up until Microsoft bastardized the isolated dollar sign to convert it into a LaTeX sigil
...because of some antiquated, ugly crapware called MathJax that had nothing to do with Markdown
...the fact that these assholes don't want to promote KaTeX without a bribe from the
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