Proposed table specification (long!)

Bowerbird at aol.com
Fri, 20 May 2011 16:25:29 -0000

yuri said:
>    Wow. I wish I had realized this back in 2005 when
>    I started working on   my Python implementation.
>    All of those hours wasted, while all I had   to do was
>    split the text on blank lines.

well, yes, it woulda saved you a few years of time, eh?

luckily, by 2008, you'd sensed that this was the solution,
judging by this passage you left on this listserve in
march:
>   Let's first unambiguously specify how markdown text
>    ought to be parsed into paragraphs, quotes, lists, etc.
>    Michel, do you want to do a first draft and circulate it?

michel did the first pass, on a draft which then... fell flat.

and now, 3 years after _that_, michel is currently
saying:
>   What we really need is an effort in the style of
>    HTML5's HTML parsing algorithm which provides an
>    unambiguous definition of how things should be parsed

you guys can run around in circles all you like, until you
finally decide you're gonna work together to accomplish
this objective, and then, when you do, you can revisit my
advice, whereupon you'll find it is exactly what you need.

i'm _not_ telling y'all that you have a problem.   i have _no_
desire to do an intervention on you.   do what you like, guys.
it's jeff atwood who was telling you that you have a problem.
i say if you want to remain islands, i'm perfectly fine with it.

but if/when _you_ decide that you have a problem, well then
you will probably also realize that i've given you the solution.

because, after all, you'd seized upon the solution yourselves,
years ago; you just didn't realize that you had found the key.
(or, if you did realize it, you didn't use it to unlock the door.)

***

and i _invite_ you to add all of this to "the collected sayings".

except it hasn't been updated in a long time.   you know why?

because the guy who created it was in a long-running dispute
with me about how p.g. should proceed.   i said "light-markup"
and he said "t.e.i."   (as if volunteers at p.g. could handle t.e.i.)

finally, about a year back, he realized he was wrong all along.
he still won't _admit_ that, but he quietly shifted his efforts to
-- guess what -- light-markup, in the form of restructured text.

how does that saying go?

>    "first they laugh at you,
>    then they ignore you,
>    then they fight you,
>    then you win."

and how does that other saying go?

>    he who laughs last
>    laughs best.

-bowerbird
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