* [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2008-03-03 23:45]: > > Is it possible for everyone to agree in all cases about how > > the user’s intent should be teased out? Clearly it is > > conceivable that enough effort could be made to write all > > agreements down. > > > > And if you write down what intent should be teased out of > > particular inputs, what have you created but a spec? And if > > the effort has been made to agree on all possible cases, > > would this spec not be unambiguous? And is it not yet > > obviously the case that such a spec would not need to be > > inflexible about the syntax it admits? > > > > Why then does the fallacious argument that a spec would > > represent a loss for the user continue? > > aren't you loading the dice by labeling it as "fallacious"?
No. The reasoning I outlined in questions [I’ve taken the liberty to re-insert the quotation you elided] shows that the premises do not support the argument. That means, like it or not, that the argument is fallacious. Sorry. I can’t change that. > i'm not necessarily arguing that _any_ spec would do that. > but some might... most especially by some implementers... Then those specs would not describe Markdown. As I understand, the current discussion is about writing a specification for Markdown, not for some other markup language. If those “some” implementors want to write a specification for something other than Markdown, they are welcome to do so, but they and their spec are irrelevant to the ongoing discussion. > and according to markdown, users can't be wrong, can they? Users can very well be wrong according to Markdown. As John has said, if a human would have trouble figuring out what structure some piece of text is supposed to signify, the computer can be forgiven for likewise failing to infer a useful meaning. Regards, -- Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/> _______________________________________________ Markdown-Discuss mailing list Markdown-Discuss@six.pairlist.net http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/markdown-discuss
