I've seen both approaches used. And in both cases, nothing comes of it outside of the specific project (for an example, see the BNF in the XML spec). What you

I've seen both approaches used. And in both cases, nothing comes of it outside of the specific project (for an example, see the BNF in the XML spec). What you end up with is a bunch of small innovations in each project, but no incentive to consolidate these gains (because it's so niche to begin with, and there's no significant business advantage to be had). And of course anyone who tries will have massive pushback ala https://xkcd.com/927 https://xkcd.com/927 So everyone just does their own thing and we pretend that it's all fine.