Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
CoffeeScript vs Markdown: What are the differences?
Developers describe CoffeeScript as "Unfancy JavaScript". CoffeeScript is a little language that compiles into JavaScript. Underneath that awkward Java-esque patina, JavaScript has always had a gorgeous heart. CoffeeScript is an attempt to expose the good parts of JavaScript in a simple way. On the other hand, Markdown is detailed as "Text-to-HTML conversion tool/syntax for web writers, by John Gruber". Markdown is two things: (1) a plain text formatting syntax; and (2) a software tool, written in Perl, that converts the plain text formatting to HTML.
CoffeeScript and Markdown can be categorized as "Languages" tools.
"Easy to read", "Faster to write" and "Syntactic sugar" are the key factors why developers consider CoffeeScript; whereas "Easy formatting", "Widely adopted" and "Intuitive" are the primary reasons why Markdown is favored.
CoffeeScript is an open source tool with 15.2K GitHub stars and 1.99K GitHub forks. Here's a link to CoffeeScript's open source repository on GitHub.
Asana, Code School, and GoSquared are some of the popular companies that use Markdown, whereas CoffeeScript is used by Code School, Zaarly, and thoughtbot. Markdown has a broader approval, being mentioned in 756 company stacks & 718 developers stacks; compared to CoffeeScript, which is listed in 364 company stacks and 170 developer stacks.
AsciiDoc belongs to the family of lightweight markup languages, the most renowned of which is Markdown. AsciiDoc stands out from this group because it supports all the structural elements necessary for drafting articles, technical manuals, books, presentations and prose.
This includes, for example, admonitions, variables, the include statement, example blocks, footnotes, keyboard macro, equations and formular support (albeid only with asciidoctor and installed plugin iirc), automatic toc and header, description lists, actually usable tables, etc ...
In combination with Antora one can built the most awesome, versioned, and Dont-Repeat-Yourself but-also "Fully-Explain-without-just-Linking" documentation ever.
GitHub has built-in support for it, albeid not for it's include directive, though that can be dealt with by using CI to invoke asciidoctor-reducer or publishing a github page that has been rendered using the asciidoctor/antora renderer.
https://docs.checkmk.com/ uses Asciidoctor. Linus Torvalds once recommended Asciidoctor (1).
Pros of CoffeeScript
- Easy to read199
- Faster to write179
- Syntactic sugar126
- Readable104
- Elegant104
- Pretty73
- Javascript the good parts53
- Open source48
- Classes44
- "it's just javascript"35
- Compact code16
- Easy15
- Simple13
- Not Javascript13
- Does the same with less code2
- I'm jobs I'm software engineer1
Pros of Markdown
- Easy formatting345
- Widely adopted246
- Intuitive194
- Github integration132
- Great for note taking41
- Defacto GitHub lingo2
Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions
Cons of CoffeeScript
- No ES63
- Corner cases in syntax1
- Parentheses required in 0-ary function calls1
- Unclear what will be grouped to {…}1
Cons of Markdown
- Cannot centralise (HTML code needed)2
- Inconsistend flavours eg github, reddit, mmd etc1
- Limited syntax1
- Not suitable for longer documents1
- Non-extensible1
- No right indentation1
- No underline1
- Unable to indent tables1
Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions
What is CoffeeScript?
What is Markdown?
Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
What companies use Markdown?
Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions
What tools integrate with Markdown?
Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions
Blog Posts
+33+29