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Markdown doesn't have a spec. There's a "syntax description", which leaves a lot of ambiguities, and the original Perl script, which you could consider a refere
by tkfu 7y ago
Markdown doesn't have a spec. There's a "syntax description", which leaves a lot of ambiguities, and the original Perl script, which you could consider a reference implementation. But there certainly isn't a spec.
(Or, alternatively, there are several competing specs, like CommonMark, Standard Markdown, and GitHub-flavoured Markdown. But your comment seems to be suggesting that there's one authoritative spec, which there definitely isn't.)
- joeblau 7y agoMarkdown does have a spec created and posted by the person that invented it, John Gruber[1]. The problem is that people keep adding features to it and no one follows the actual markdown spec. [1] - https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/ https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
- tkfu 7y agoThat's not a spec, and it doesn't claim to be one. It's the syntax description that I referred to above. A spec needs to unambiguously <em>spec</em>ify the grammar.
- joeblau 7y agoJohn didn't invent it for everyone to implement it on everything on the internet. He invented it for him to use on his blog because he's a writer and wanted to focus on his content, not on writing HTML. Just because it's not "specified" that doesn't mean it's not the canonical spec. All of the other additions that aren't on that page aren't based on the canonical version of Markdown.