I don't expect it to be 20 years backwards compatible, but since I use VMs daily, I have a good idea of when to start looking for a way to convert the machine to a different more modern format.
Re: markdown or similar like restructuredtext, I don't have any experience with advanced markup in them, but I think you'll have the same plugin problem as with LaTeX. The readability of the source isn't that important, since you'll probably have the rendered output as well, and that is,or should be, copy/pastable if needed.
Re: markdown or similar like restructuredtext, I don't have any experience with advanced markup in them, but I think you'll have the same plugin problem as with LaTeX. The readability of the source isn't that important, since you'll probably have the rendered output as well, and that is,or should be, copy/pastable if needed.