link syntax
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link syntax is a way of expressing a hyperlink with a URL and link text, in a plain text document, such as Markdown, MediaWiki syntax, etc.
Examples
Markdown
[linktext](URL)
Markdown criticism
- Not memorable
Aaron Parecki “I can barely ever remember the order of the markdown [] vs ()”
“url first? text first? url goes in the round ones or the square ones?” (2016-04-27 IRC)
gRegor Morrill “I can never remember the right way to do links on github (whatever flavor of MD that is)” (2016-04-27 IRC)- @evilgaywitch “Only so many times you can forget how the fuck to do a link [in Markdown] before you just use raw HTML” (2014-09-17)
MediaWiki
[externalURL linktext] [[wikipagepath|linktext]]
MediaWiki criticism
- Hard to remember
bear “ is it [] or () or {} and is the text first or last”
Usability considerations
- URL-first is better
- gRegor Morrill “URL-first makes sense to me.”
“Link text is optional, so makes sense to come after the link.” - Aaron Parecki “URL first makes sense cause it's the closest to the HTML I would write instead”
Kevin Marks “url[space]link text is easy to remember because you can't have spaces in URLs”- counterpoint: bear “url first to me is wrong because i'm writing text and *then* want to have that text get a link”
Tantek Çelik tends to agree. “I chose linktext before URL in my syntax, because the linktext is what a user is reading first and foremost more than the URL it links to”