Why I’ve (mostly) Switched from AsciiDoc to Markdown
Updated  by  nm  2024-May-7

In 2019, I started using Asciidoctor² and Hugo to manage this Infinite Ink website. Now, in 2024, I’m still using Hugo, but I’m writing new content in Markdown rather than AsciiDoc. The reasons I’ve switched include the following.

• It’s more fun to write in Markdown.
• Markdown is evolving.³ AsciiDoc seems to be stagnating (other than getting a new logo).
• Markdown is supported almost everywhere, including in the note-taking and productivity apps I’m considering.
• Asciidoctor requires Ruby and is a resource hog (at least when used with Hugo).¹
• I can emulate most AsciiDoc features that are not Markdown features with Hugo Shortcodes⁠📇 and Hugo render hooks.
• Since Markdown is a superset of HTML, I can easily intertwingle Markdown and raw HTML.

AsciiDoc features I miss

I have not figured out how to do the following in Goldmark Markdown.⁴

• Comment out a single line without worrying about the structure of the surrounding lines. AsciiDoc supports commenting a line by prefixing it with //.
• Use inline footnotes. I wrote about this in Infinite Ink’s Compare Hugo’s Markup Languages (featuring inline footnotes)⁠⚖️.

Endnotes