because HTML is hard to use compared to markdown. If one does a bit of research one easily finds that markdown is the standard markup language for apps these days.
I think it is probably better to learn the basic HTML required â or ask a friend to help â than trying to realise presentation through use of Markdown.
There is not a one-to-one relationship between Markdown and HTML, so it is not a great way to organise the presentation of your information. And after all, the Anki cards are presented through HTML.
Markdown is useful only for documents or text that require minimal formatting: e.g. italics, bold text, bullets, numbered lists, and headings. Practically anything else is outside the standard.
well, I am quite technical person (head of CogSci Apps, with a PhD in Cognitive Science and AI) so itâs not that I need to learn HTML. But Markdown even for technical folks (it was after all invented by John Gruber, no slouch) is superior for this kind of purpose. Not to repeat myself but many apps use it for that reason. Itâs better to give users the choice than to ram HTML down their throats in my humble opinion. Iâve been using Anki for >20 min day daily since 2008, and have written about it in Cognitive Productivity: Using Knowledge to Become Profoundly Effective and in Cognitive Productivity with macOS: 7 Principles for Getting Smarter with Knowledge (3 chapters over two books)⌠Not an argument from authority, but Iâm just saying thereâs a strong case for Markdown.
Very much âYMMVâ case. For me â needing only bold/italics/underline and unordered list having to deal with HTML to achieve those is huge PITA.
Of course you may argue that:
<ul>
<li>This</li>
<li>formatting</li>
<li>is</li>
<li>awesome</li>
</ul>
* instead of
* this nice
* and readable
* one
and that itâs not that much more work to type like that but Iâd say thatâs huge bending of logicâŚ
Thatâs what the toolbar buttons are there for. Users that do not want to learn basic html can just press the key combo or the button, e.g. to bold their text.
we need more than bold. We need bullet lists, numbered lists, which are easy to write in Markdown. Anyway, if the ANki community resists this there is nothing I can do about it. I can just say they are wrong. Everybody else outside the ANki community know that the proper language for markup is now markdown. There are just so many tools that have adopted it. Look at obsidian for instance. (and no I do not say we need the full power of obsidian). Look at Discourse dot org. etc. etc. etc.
incredibleâŚ
Youâve got those in the formatting bar too! Adding/Editing - Anki Manual
Itâs clear you think this is an in-community/out-community battle, but is it?
Folks who already know Markdown might say that Markdown support is essential â folks who already know HTML, or who are comfortable using the formatting bar and keyboard shortcuts, might say that Markdown support doesnât need to be built in. There doesnât have to be a one-right-opinon to hold on this question.
Several devs have explained above the complexity of trying to include Markdown support in the editor as it exists. [Itâs highly unlikely the editor would ever be reconstructed to store everything in Markdown-only for obvious compatibility reasons.] As long as there arenât any devs interested in doing the work it would take to make this happen, there are plenty of add-ons that seem to offer that â https://ankiweb.net/shared/addons?search=markdown .
yes, but my point is in my humble opinion we need them via markdown. e.g., I am the developer of Hookmark Mac app. We make a point of making all commands available to keyboarders who donât like clicking through the UI, which is a basic principle of cognitive productivity: keyboard is faster (for those who are comfortable with it).
All the UI buttons mentioned have associated keyboard shortcuts though
Yeah⌠if only the editor wasnât absolutely terrible making me quinch each time I have to use itâŚ
Itâ not exactly tru? Markdown itâs completely compatible with HTML (i.e. any html within âmarkdown dokumentâ will render it as htmlâŚ)
Yeah⌠not reallyâŚ
âMarkdown Support - With Batch n Preview [Currently unmaintained]â
There was a PR with markdown compatible fields but⌠it was close 
I donât know Python and itâs convoluted build system/lifecycle to try to contribute anything sensible here 
In the end I whipped my own very clumsy solution (see above) and it kinda works butâŚ
Based on your phrasing, I believe the point I was trying to make is the reverse: that HTML â including all the un-parsed text within it â is not completely compatible with Markdown. (Referring to: Integrating Markdown into Anki - #8 by dae .)
For instance, * can be used in text in many ways, so if someone didnât intend it to be parsed as Markdown (as bold, italic, list, etc.), we canât simply convert to storing their text as Markdown instead. Multiply that issue by millions of usersâ existing collections âŚ
Well, since there are passionate supporters of Markdown (see this thread), that makes me wonder if the lack of an adequate add-on over these many years speaks to the difficulty of mixing the syntax.