Michel Fortin wrote: > Le 2007-06-20 à 5:51, Thomas Nichols a écrit : > >> Having a mime type of 'text/x-markdown' and a profile URI >> declared by the author of the language grammar (e.g. >> "http://maruku.org/0.5";) seems an economical solution, and would follow >> the pattern for [XML namespaces][xml-namespaces], Java JAXP feature >> URIs[jaxp-features] and [OpenID identifiers][openid] > > All these need a unique identifier to work anywhere, ensuring that > authors will create the unique identifier. Not the case with Markdown: > anyone can create his own version without creating a corresponding > unique identifier. If a downstream developer, someone else than the > original author, needs an identifier and decide to create one, nothing > ensure others will use the same identifier; and here goes the "unique" > part of the identifier.
Yup, this is true - so maybe it would be good for the author of any new Markdown-derivative syntax to specify an identifying URI (as you have done below)? It most certainly should not be the _document_ authors who create such URIs, and if it is a downstream _processor_ author, for example Andrea Censi with Maruku, then he could define a new URI - perhaps http://maruku.org/syntax#0.5 - and declare that it is a superset of the specs http://michelf.com/ref/markdown-extra#v1.1 http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#1.0.1 (or whatever Mr Gruber would care to choose as a profile identifier). > > Beside, what does the identifier corresponds to anyway? A specific > implementation? A particular syntax? One version of that > implementation or that syntax or all of them? I can't really figure > out right now: how many "unique" identifiers are needed and how are > each going to be used? A great reason for having formal language grammars! :-) In the absence of such grammars, though, we have "the syntax supported by Markdown.pl 1.01" or "the syntax as specified at http://web.archive.org/web/20060530023711/http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax (in other words, John Gruber's syntax definition as at 30 May 2006). I'm guessing that a new URI will typically be issued for a new version of a spec, introducing features that are not handled (or - gasp - are handled differently) in earlier versions. As a CMS developer, when processing a document, I can examine the mime-type (text/x-markdown) and look for a profile URI. I can then select an appropriate processor for this profile, or warn the user if it is not a profile that I recognize. All that is needed to get this to work is for "downstream developers" of Markdown-derivative processors to define their own URI and to declare which other profiles are supported. I'd guess that in order to be considered a Markdown processor at all, John Gruber's original profile should always be supported. > > >> Any suggested changes to this? Michel, would you care to propose a URI >> for Markdown Extra, should anyone decide they'd like to use one? > > I'm still not sure using URLs for this is worthy, but if someone wants > a reference URL for Markdown Extra, I'd suggest using this: > > http://michelf.com/ref/markdown-extra > > I've put a small explanatory document at this address. If you need > versioning, here is what I suggest: > > http://michelf.com/ref/markdown-extra#v1.0 > http://michelf.com/ref/markdown-extra#v1.1 > > These are the two points at which PHP Markdown Extra changed its > syntax specification (besides beta versions) to accomodate new features. Excellent, thank you very much; using fragment identifiers for versions works for me. Andrea, would you be happy with http://maruku.org/syntax http://maruku.org/syntax#0.5 as profiles? And John, as the instigator of this dance, would you care to suggest a canonical profile URI? Or should it be just http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#1.0.1 ? As per the XML namespaces spec, we'll be relying upon exact string matching to identify profiles. Thanks to all who've worked on this. Regards, Thomas. _______________________________________________ Markdown-Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/markdown-discuss
