Ddoc macro syntax

[Andrei Alexandrescu via Digitalmars-d]

On 9/16/16 9:10 AM, Marco Leise wrote:
> Am Fri, 16 Sep 2016 13:16:35 +0200
> schrieb Jacob Carlborg <doob at me.com>:
>
>> My biggest issue with the macros is not the syntax (I don't like that
>> either) but it's that one needs to use them too much.
>
> Same for me. I feel like this discussion is probably
> picking out the wrong enemy. Sure macros need some way of
> escaping, but I'm happy with anything that replaces macros in
> common use case scenarios with more readable syntax, just like
> the design goals stated back in the day:
>
> 1. It looks good as embedded documentation, not just after it
>    is extracted and processed.
> 2. It's easy and natural to write, i.e. minimal reliance on
>    <tags> and other clumsy forms one would never see in a
>    finished document.
>
> The abundance of macros for common formatting tasks like
> emphasis, (un)ordered lists and - a while ago - inline code,
> contradicts point 2 when compared to a bottom up approach,
> where you take a look at some plain text documents and ask
> yourself: If there is only ASCII, how do people use it
> creatively to convey the idea of formatting in a natural way
> and can we deduce rules from that to automatically transform
> text into PDF/HTML/CHM/...
> I want to think that markdown came into existence like this.
> Someone sat down and formalized a list of things people
> already do and slapped a name on it.

Very nice point. Now, who is kiith-sa and what do we need to do to 
integrate that ddoc+markdown project within our toolchain? -- Andrei