What we need, I think, is an HTML5-like effort from the industry. That's the one format I can think of which went from "complete mess" to "parses the same ever

What we need, I think, is an HTML5-like effort from the industry. That's the one format I can think of which went from "complete mess" to "parses the same everywhere". 1. Look at how everybody is extending CSV in the real world 2. Make a new format which does those things, as closely to all the existing implementations as is reasonable 3. Write a fully-specified new syntax for it, including a complete parser (state machine including error cases) 4. Make a complete set of tests, which make it very obvious when you don't pass, for shaming everyone into compliance 5. Get buy-in from a major standards organization, and all of the major corporate players I don't see any improvements/replacements succeeding if they don't hit all of these points. "CSV 1.1" here hits #1 and #2 only.