Plain Text Is Still One of the Best Technologies We Have
Why Plain Text Is Still One of the Best Technologies We Have
Plain text endures because it's simple, portable, and inspectable — no proprietary format, no required app. It's the backbone of code, configs, and logs, and tools like grep and sed have handled it for decades. Markdown adds formatting while keeping the source readable. The author argues that boring, durable formats beat feature-rich ones that lock your data into a service.
After decades of watching software and file formats come and go, I have developed a fair amount of respect for technologies that do less and survive longer.