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I don't want to rehash that whole thing, but I totally agree with Gruber in that case. The "Standard Markdown" name really implied a degree of canonicity and a
by slipheen 6y ago
I don't want to rehash that whole thing, but I totally agree with Gruber in that case.
The "Standard Markdown" name really implied a degree of canonicity and authority over Markdown, even though it was neither created by or endorsed by Markdown's creator.
CommonMark also only changed the name from "Standard Flavored Markdown" to "Standard Markdown" after sending a copy to Gruber, so I'm sure it at least felt very dishonest.
The new name is clearer, and it's been a settled issue for the last 6 years. I'm not sure why the article would have gone into more detail about it.
- sbierwagen 6y agoWhat, did Gruber invent the practice of putting asterisks around text? The article made it clear he did not. Did Gruber invent the name "Markdown" from whole cloth? No, it is a pun based on the word "markup". Did the Standard Markdown consortium make changes that broke compatibility with Gruber's users? No, because nobody was using Gruber's perl parser. Were they competing with the standard Gruber wrote? No, because he never wrote a standard. The article spends a great deal of time explaining how markdown codified existing conventions. It describes, not invents. Gruber didn't create markdown, because it already existed. Should he then hold the privilege to control it in perpetuity?
- ArchOversight 6y agoIn that case no-one really invents much these days... just rehashes and or iterates on good ideas and repackages them slightly different.