Comment by noufalibrahim
1 day ago
Org format is reasonably intuitive (so is markdown).
But org's real power comes from org-mode and the rest of Emacs. Being able to use it as PIM, as a quick way to write documents and export them, as a way to take notes, the keystrokes which are almost automatic for any Emacs user etc.
This is really why it shines. I don't see much value for it as just a markdown format outside Emacs.
The value of Org outside Emacs would be the same value that Markdown has, if it had wider adoption. Voit's post makes a strong argument for Org syntax's ability to serve for all the things Markdown currently does, while being more consistent and concise than Markdown, and so he pushes for it to be more widely adopted. We know that in tech, the better format doesn't always win at first, or ever, but we can advocate!
org-mode is just much more complicated to implement though and just contains so much. it's also a todo app. It also lets you run code like a python notebook. it can show you your tasks in a calendar.
I've used "org-mode" todo apps on android, but people complain they can't really use it because it doesn't implement everything.
The advantage of the core markdown syntax is that you know it works everywhere and it works everywhere because it's small and easy to implement.
I think the implementation challenge is the reasoning behind https://karl-voit.at/2021/11/27/orgdown/ So you can say "my org-mode parser implements orgdown level 1" meaning it has the basics. I think it sounds like a pretty good idea, though it's kind of a third party effort – it'd be better if there were some officially sanctioned compatibility level standard from the orgmode authors.
> org-mode is just much more complicated to implement though and just contains so much.
So just implement the features it has in common with Markdown and add the rest as and when people ask for them.
For me, org-mode syntax is just that much more intuitive than Markdown. I sometimes feel that when devs invent something (Markdown, YAML, etc), they really should do 5 minutes of research before inventing their thing.
Markdown should have used all the org-mode syntax for the the features they wanted.
2 replies →
Fair enough. We can argue about the betterness of org but even if so, its enough better enough to push our something as popular as Markdown. The real item of value is org mode.
Exactly. We should all speak/write Esperanto.
In the meantime, I'll advocate for evolving Markdown, specifically GFM.
I do use a custom keyboard layout, but that doesn't have to interoperate with anything/anyone.
Edit: I have a similar unpopular opinion: we should use functional languages and immutable datastructures. At least we some data of movement in that direction with the patterns being adopted by other languages and codebases.
The point of https://karl-voit.at/2025/08/17/Markdown-disaster/ and even more https://karl-voit.at/2017/09/23/orgmode-as-markup-only/ is that I do think that orgdown has very much a higher level of practical use (outside of Emacs) compared to Markdown.
And I do come from the daily practice with Markdown and not academic arguments alone - which I also fancy, I have to admit.