I use POD, and use Pod::Usage through out my code. I am familiar with POD syntax. However, the POD syntax strikes me a bit long in the tooth.

POD syntax was created to help developers to quickly write their code. It is fairly straight forward, but there is a learning curve, and teaching developers to use it can be a pain. I like the concept of POD documentation, but I was thinking that it would be much easier to get developers to write the documentation if we could use Markdown for the syntax;

For example, in POD syntax:


=head1 PARAMETERS

The following are valid parameters:

=over 10

=item *

B<-foo>: Does all of your foo stuff.

=item *

B<-bar>: In case you need to bar.

=back

[download]

Would be this in Markdown:


# PARAMETERS

The following are valid parameters:

* **-foo**: Does all of your foo stuff.
* **-bar**: In case you need to bar.

[download]

Markdown is not only easier to write, but is also more readable. And, developers who use Stackoverflow, GitHub, Reddit, SourceForge, and many other sites would be familiar with its syntax.

I'm not thinking of a wholesale replacement, just a way of using Markdown in POD documentation and have tools like POD::Usage and perldoc to be able to parse it.

In reply to Is POD Syntax Obsolete? by qazwart

Title:
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