3 ms·

Simplified markup of text was standard on wikis, beginning with Ward's Wiki at c2.com in 1994, a full ten years before Markdown appeared.

• maguay 6y ago
  Author here: Ohhh that's one I wish I hadn't missed, thanks for mentioning it. Ward's contributions with c2 keep showing up in different places, as you mention here with plain text formatting, and in other ways with for example the backlinking that's popular now in Roam Research, Notion, and every other personal notes app that suddenly is making the personal wiki a reality.
  • neurocline 6y ago
    Not to mention Setext, 1991.
    • maguay 6y ago
      Oh man, a standardized plain-text email formatting! I can't believe I hadn't come across that before. I just added a brief mention of that to the article with a credit to your comment; that's absolutely something worth including.