Markdown everywhere

Posted by Marbux
Jan 8, 2018 at 03:51 AM

Dr Andus wrote:
There are some good links to various Markdown resources in this article:
> >“Online Markdown Converter For Open Educational Resources”
> >https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/omcoer/64822

The article doesn’t mention Markdown’s major deficiency. There is no Markdown standard and implementers have developed lots of variants that are incompatible with each other. So interoperability is largely a crapshoot.

We got a start a few years ago on developing a Markdown standard via W3C to cut through this interop Gordion’s Knot, but couldn’t persuade a single implementer to participate.

That was largely a replay of an earlier effort to standardize wiki syntax. Implementers just don’t care enough about interoperability to invest the effort required to develop and implement a standard.

Because of user requests, we recently implemented Markdown export in NoteCase Pro, with options to handle up to four varying parameters. But for my personal use, I am boycotting Markdown because of implementers’ refusal to collaborate on developing and implementing a standard aimed at interoperability of implementations. It’s pure vendor lock-in B.S. mixed with a dash of developer laziness.