# AsciiMath

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/asciimath/

7 people recommended AsciiMath in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 12 months, in 3 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

5 of the 7 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “AsciiMath”.

**Verdict:** People recommend AsciiMath for readable plain-ASCII math that avoids verbose LaTeX commands. Critics say its implementations are lacking and some syntax choices are error-prone.

Summary written by Claude from 15 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Readable plain ASCII notation (2 comments in the sample): "AsciiMath makes easy equations read easy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140228)) "the ASCII side is highly readable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45943007))
- Useful for lectures and notes (2 comments in the sample): "It was the key for me being able to write maths in a classroom/lecture theatre" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45942579)) "This is cool. I could see myself using this for notes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45941532))

## What people warn about

- Odd, error-prone syntax choices (3 comments in the sample): "seems like an error-prone way to write your math" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46141267)) "doubtless "better" for an obscure reason known only to its author" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45942934)) "it is a rather odd choice" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45948250))
- Hard to read (2 comments in the sample): "Why use the exponent sign to indicate the upper limit?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45943131)) "It's not exactly easy to read, is it?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45944486))

## Other markup languages people recommend

- [Markdown](https://hackerapproved.com/p/markdown/): 116 recommend, 25 mixed, 65 criticize
- [AsciiDoc](https://hackerapproved.com/p/asciidoc/): 24 recommend, 11 mixed, 10 criticize
- [Djot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/djot/): 15 recommend, 4 mixed, 4 criticize
- [reStructuredText](https://hackerapproved.com/p/restructuredtext/): 12 recommend, 7 mixed, 8 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "AsciiMath", https://hackerapproved.com/p/asciimath/ (7 recommend, 1 mixed, 5 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.