Gregory's Server
 139 comments
12
@jpmens tar is no problem, but markdown links is like the args to ln(1) for me: I get it right about 75% of the time without looking it up. :-)     @Andi_H @jpmens @jschauma I just learned this the other week 😅 but too late for me because I learned the flags meaning and that -f needs an additional argument. Took me mere 15 years to memorize - Extract, verify, zip with file Verify no matter what otherwise my mnemonic breaks. I also never use barely anything else without reading the man page 😭  Not mentioning [URL text] (for Wikipedia) and yes unfortunately also [Link Text|URL] (for Jira).    @jpmens @jschauma oh my actual fucking god. One of my coding modules at uni ended with something like “now compress the file into a tarball and submit on turnitin”. Even following the shitty walkthrough from the instructor with the console line command pre-written, I still struggled so much I nearly cried in that damn workshop ffs.   Pas mal, comme astuce… mais oui, j’ai aussi ce problème d’ordre. Ne serais-tu pas dyslexique, toi aussi ? @Monolecte @benmeier_ @jschauma I remember it because you cannot use ( or ) in an url, so it won't break the structure. But you can use it in the text (and it is more used than [ ])  @nartagnan @Monolecte @benmeier_ @jschauma you can use parenthesis in a URL, that's valid according to RFC 3986. Some webservers use them to preserve state in a URL, as show below https://docs.roxen.com/(en)/roxen/1.3/creator/url/index.html @benmeier_ @jschauma I use the alphabet. Brackets before parentheses because b comes before p.  @jschauma I use editor shortcuts to help me not make this mistake. I also noticed this one for VIM users: https://ryan-schachte.com/notes/vim_link_binding/ Avec #obsidian, on a une assistance à la rédaction : ça m’aide énormément et surtout pour les liens. @jschauma How I remember it: [HERE'S A LINK!](https://my friend forgot to add the url, so here it is.com), like a parenthetical aside after a statement. 😅  @lebout2canap @Monolecte @jschauma I had the problem for a while, but I’m so addict to Markdown that it is not anymore the case… Practicing a lot is the best way do it right.  @jschauma <a href="fuck it i give up">we're all adults and understand the intended meaning, right?</a>
@jschauma@mstdn.social this was explained to me to treat [] as the function call and (link) as the argument. Never messed up since.    @jschauma its quite simple really. how do we treat links? without markdown, you'd say: Hey, look at google! (google.com) so, with markdown, you say: Hey, look at [google](https://google.com) that's it!  @jschauma i just remember that it's the option that makes no sense and i get it right every time
@jschauma it’s [text] (url) because the text is square like a tag or text box @jschauma I remember them the same way I do port/starboard. bracket : text port : left the first letter of each is in the same position - lowest letter, highest letter  @jschauma A friend of mine once told me that his magic trick to remember the order was that he came up with a silly song that went "🎵Markdown links are like arrays of functions🎵" -- I don't even know the melody but I never forgot those lyrics! And to remember whether the text of URL goes inside the parentheses, here's a trick of my own: OF COURSE it's the choice that causes problems with Wikipedia links that have disambiguation like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_(band) You're welcome!! @hisham_hm @jschauma for me, the explanation @gruber gave here made me never forget it again: https://twitter.com/gruber/status/944045881363443712  @diogomafra @hisham_hm @jschauma @gruber I read that within a day of reading that brackets are before parentheses, alphabetically, so I can’t say which actually did it, but I haven’t forgotten since. @diogomafra Copying @gruber’s tweet text here partly for anyone who doesn’t want to go over there, but mostly for my own reference: “My thinking when I created Markdown is that the [brackets] around the link text look like the rectangle of a hovered-over link rendered in the browser. Make sense?”  @hisham_hm @jschauma Yeah it’s the “will this actually work with a Wikipedia link” anxiety that helped me remember the order as well!! @jschauma I have opposite problem now. I’m so used to using Markdown in everything that every other markup language fucks me up now, especially BBcode. xD @jschauma I didn't comment on the `ln -s` version of this meme, because I make symlinks often enough that I've got that down (I also have my own makes-sense-to-me way of remembering it). Links in markdown tho? Fuggeddaboudid. I avoid them. I just write out the URL and figure whoever sees it will figure it out, or if it's something like linear or notion, their backend will do it for me.  @jschauma@mstdn.social took me a while to learn it's brackets and text first and round braces with url second.    @jschauma@mstdn.social i remember this by treating the url as secondary information and secondary information is placed in parentheses @jschauma@mstdn.social a clear win for the org mode syntax. It's just [[url][text]]. @jschauma I remember it as: You click on what looks like a [button](and link to source follows in parentheses, just like you would explain an abbreviation). @teilweise @jschauma markdown was meant to be readable as-is. Many people put URLs in parentheses after some thing they mention, after, not before. I always thought it was pretty natural.  @jschauma I always remember it that way: Brackets comes before Parenthesis → B comes before P  @jschauma as always with these things: try one of them and see whether it works (if not, try the other one). Rather than stressing out about it. @jschauma@mstdn.social @jschauma i just remember that there is a line at the bottom of the clickable text, so add  @jschauma honestly, sometimes I even forget which one goes in the brackets & which one goes in the parentheses *Adds two more buttons* @rochacbruno @jschauma This is quite similar to how I remember it. The way I do it is associating it with C++11's lambda syntax, which is `[capture](parameters){fn-body}`, so for markdown my mind kinda goes: `[capture this text and](pass this link)` I don't write a lot of C++, but sure that did stick in my mind. @jschauma "square the circle" is how I've always remembered it, though every time I need to think about it I mutter another little prayer regarding the heat and lack of general humidity in the place john gruber goes as a reward    @jschauma Tgat's or mattermost's channel at $workplace. Good thing "Edit message" was invented 😅 @jschauma@mstdn.social mines   @jschauma images are  and i just remember that the square bracket goes together with the exclamation mark like it fits next to it and the link syntax is the same I run into the same problem with OrgMode under Emacs and TiddlyWiki: Orgmode: [[URL][Text]]  @jschauma@mstdn.social  @jschauma this is why HTML is easier, as the text is outside the <> bits and other things are inside, whereas markdown has too many syntaxes. How many asterisks do I need for bold again? <b> I can remember. Never mind nesting lists  @jschauma i remember that it looks like calling a function, with the url as a parameter. A bit weird, but i don't have to think about it anymore.  @jschauma How I remember: You don’t have to hold shift to start with, but you need to hold shift for the second part. It’s easier to write the text without holding shift. @jschauma Oh yeah and the very similar anxiety from [[url text]] vs [[url|text]] (the first one is Fossil and Mediawiki, the second one is Dokuwiki)  @jschauma @lisamelton I now try to remember this as [important thing](this is the link by the way)   @jschauma I've always thought of the (url) part as some kind of function argument - and arguments are behind the function. And thanks to the other comments here I can finally remember if it's [text](url) or [url](text) :) @jschauma bouba/kiki might be a way to remember: text is a kiki word --> kiki-brackets @jschauma I'm still using this Perl/TextExpander script @bart taught us 9 years ago to "linking clipboard". https://www.bartbusschots.ie/s/2015/12/30/pretty-markdown-html-links-with-text-expander-perl/  @jschauma so true, but it helps to imagine that you call a function and pass the url as an argument  |
@jschauma curiously, that's never been a problem for me, but I can also dictate a valid tar extraction command before the bomb detonates.
However: ask me whether it's [[url][text]] or [[text][url]] in Org mode (which I've been using to create presentations for several years), and we'll all be blown to kingdon come!
Edit: https://xkcd.com/1168/