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Show HN: Ditto – Markdown documentation system

41 points| chutsu | 12 years ago |github.com | reply

25 comments

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[+] tomasien|12 years ago|reply
This is great! I'm building our docs using Aglio right now and it's great - this seems similar but with some interesting differences. Really good to see more options out there!
[+] lulle|12 years ago|reply
I don't understand all the fuzz about Markdown. Doesn't people realize that it exists other much more powerful lightweight markup languages like AsciiDoc?
[+] JoeAnzalone|12 years ago|reply
I've never heard of AsciiDoc, but I'd say the biggest advantage that Markdown has is its ubiquity. It's used by GitHub, StackOverflow, Reddit, and even Tumblr has an option for it.
[+] chutsu|12 years ago|reply
It was simply the plain-text format I am currently using, I'm sure I can add in compatibility for AsciiDoc no probs. Just a matter of adding in an AsciiDoc renderer. :)
[+] morganherlocker|12 years ago|reply
It looks powerful, but with a much steeper learning curve for non technical users[1]. I could see the nested list support being great for outlines, and tables look a lot more robust than in markdown, but I do not know if it is worth the tradeoffs of going against markdown's ubiquity.

[1] http://powerman.name/doc/asciidoc

[+] dangoor|12 years ago|reply
Does Google crawl this documentation? I know they have some JS support in their crawler, but is it enough that it would actually index a docsite built with this tool?
[+] chutsu|12 years ago|reply
Not sure Google would be able to index the docs, since they are in markdown format. But I'm not an expert in how Google index the pages.
[+] johnohara|12 years ago|reply
I've used both Multi-Markdown and Pandoc in past projects so I was intrigued by the associated live demo. Was it generated using Ditto?
[+] chutsu|12 years ago|reply
Yep, essentially ditto. :)

I would like to add that nothing is technically generated* they. The markdown files are rendered on the fly using a Javascript Markdown parser. The layout is simply HTML5 and CSS, with a dash of jQuery to make the buttons work.

[+] chutsu|12 years ago|reply
Sorry guys I had to change the name because mdoc is already used by other programs. I changed it to `ditto`.

New Link: http://chutsu.github.io/ditto/

[+] skue|12 years ago|reply
I assume you searched and discovered that ditto is also a BSD command for copying files, which is included on all Macs?[1]

This conflict may not be as confusing as the original name. I gather from the docs that you never invoke your version of ditto from the command line?

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin...

[+] dang|12 years ago|reply
Ok, we've edited the title and url of the post to match.