Proposed table specification (long!)

Bowerbird at aol.com
Fri, 20 May 2011 01:08:08 -0000

david said:
>    If you're defining how a language works,
>    you need to aim it at the technically competent.

if you want the masses to use it, you must aim there.


>    Different audiences want different information.

true.   but trite.   to the point it might as well be wrong.

there are infinite audiences "possible", but there are
only 3 worth considering, and only 2 of those 3 matter.

and thomas and michel were aiming at "the format wonks",
who are the third group, the one that doesn't even matter.
they don't matter because they fail to add any real value.
that's why thomas and michel were just wasting their time,
in my humble opinion.   who cares what format wonks think?

so let's concentrate on the other two groups instead, ok?

users are crucial, because without them you are nothing.
and programmers matter, since you need implementers.

users need something simple, and hopefully unambiguous.
programmers need unambiguity, and it's best if it's simple.

if you make your thing simple _and_ unambiguous, bingo!

***

albert said:
>    I imagine the emergence and vitality
>    of a standard syntax (among other things) would
>    benefit if everyone were familiar with this book:

also astute.

but unduly circuitous.

usually i hate to give up my hard-fought trade secrets.
and the more big, and obvious, and brilliant, they are,
the more that i hate to give 'em up, precisely because
it is exactly that first step where most people go bad,
as evidenced right here by what albert said.   but still,
markdown and its implementers have suffered enough,
so please consider this to be my open-source gift to you:
the big secret is that all you must do is split the text on
blank lines, and then just decide what each segment is,
which will tell you how it needs to be tagged/formatted.
that's it, folks.   it ain't rocket science.   it's simple as pie.
reverse-engineer your syntax from that for unambiguity.
simple, and unambiguous.   that's all you need for bingo!

but bravo for bringing up bringhurst, mr. skye.

-bowerbird
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