Can you explain a bit more what you mean? Not sure I get how it's different 
from what I'm suggesting. 

Dan


On Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 11:19 AM, Dan Mills wrote:

> This is not actually about Markdown.
> 
> This is about having a minimal document that we transform into the page the 
> user sees, by adding styling, headers, errata, links to translations, or 
> whatever the legal team wants to add. Markdown is just one example of a 
> format that would make that easy.
> 
> I completely agree that there should be some immutable version of the 
> license, the discussion is about what that should look like.
> 
> Dan
> 
> 
> On Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 11:14 AM, Maarten Zeinstra wrote:
> 
> > But really that is just silly.
> > 
> > What legal is requesting is a way to get to the 'real' legal code, but 
> > actually they are asking for a simple representation of that code. As I see 
> > it they want something like a 'print-version' of the legal code. That would 
> > still mean that there is markup in some way.
> > 
> > I would have one basic html document, slightly different than Kinkades 
> > example (I would stack css classes), and have two pages. One for web 
> > viewing and another completely dressed down for print.
> > 
> > I think given the option of a print version or a markdown version the 
> > legal-team will probably choose the former.
> > 
> > -- 
> > Kennisland 
> > | www.kennisland.nl (http://www.kennisland.nl) | t +31205756720 | m 
> > +31643053919 | @mzeinstra
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On Apr 18, 2013, at 20:10 , Dan Mills <[email protected] 
> > (mailto:[email protected])> wrote:
> > > No, end users would use HTML when used in a web context, of course. But 
> > > consider the two use-cases I mentioned:
> > > 
> > > * Adding translation links at the bottom of the legal code page.
> > > * Embedding the legal code into the deed in some manner.
> > > 
> > > Both are HTML for the end user, but *different HTML*.
> > > 
> > > So again, the point is that we need:
> > > 
> > > 1) a *minimal* format to express the licenses themselves, and nothing 
> > > more.
> > > 2) some tooling to take those licenses and format them as needed 
> > > depending on context.
> > > 
> > > And although we could write that tooling today with the HTML as-is, I 
> > > would *much* rather write tools that know less about the license content. 
> > > 
> > > Dan
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 10:57 AM, Greg Grossmeier wrote:
> > > 
> > > > I guess the miscommunication here is:
> > > > what tooling will you build that needs to use something other than HTML
> > > > to display the license?
> > > > 
> > > > What use-case do you have in mind, Dan?
> > > > 
> > > > Greg
> > > > 
> > > > <quote name="Dan Mills" date="2013-04-18" time="10:50:26 -0700">
> > > > > Hi, 
> > > > > 
> > > > > The licenses still contain too much information which is not actually 
> > > > > part of the licenses. Just open that link, view source, and behold.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Of course we could parse it, but how would you decide what you can 
> > > > > remove and what is part of the license? We need to minimize the 
> > > > > amount of code that has such decisions embedded in it. 
> > > > > 
> > > > > Dan
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > On Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 10:45 AM, Nathan Kinkade wrote:
> > > > > 
> > > > > > All of the CC licenses validate as XHTML 1.0 Transitional. There are
> > > > > > a lot of really great XML parsers out there for manipulating such
> > > > > > documents. It would be trivial for us to clean up the HTML in the 
> > > > > > 4.0
> > > > > > licenses to more minimal, using better nesting of id and classes so 
> > > > > > we
> > > > > > can use more accurate CSS selectors, and javascript can more 
> > > > > > reliably
> > > > > > navigate the DOM. I have already started this when I put together 
> > > > > > the
> > > > > > Draft 3 of the 4.0 licenses by giving a unique ID to each section 
> > > > > > and
> > > > > > subsection:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/drafts/by-sa_4.0d3.html#s3a1B
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Nathan
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 1:30 PM, Dan Mills 
> > > > > > <[email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) 
> > > > > > (mailto:[email protected])> wrote:
> > > > > > > Hi Bjorn & Maarten,
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > I think you're missing a key point that Kat is making: the legal 
> > > > > > > team is
> > > > > > > looking to change the pages that the licenses are on, to add 
> > > > > > > translation
> > > > > > > links. I also know that they are thinking about ways of including 
> > > > > > > the
> > > > > > > licenses inside the deeds, which would also require some changes 
> > > > > > > to the
> > > > > > > license pages.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > So the point is not "what do you think of Markdown" in a vacuum, 
> > > > > > > it's: what
> > > > > > > format can we store that contains only the absolute minimum to be
> > > > > > > considered to be part of the licenses, so that we can build 
> > > > > > > tooling to style
> > > > > > > it appropriately depending on the context.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > We could obviously write tooling that takes the current HTML and 
> > > > > > > transforms
> > > > > > > it, but such tooling would need to be highly content-aware: it 
> > > > > > > would need to
> > > > > > > know which parts of the HTML file it can remove or change, and 
> > > > > > > which ones it
> > > > > > > cannot. We likely can't eliminate that completely regardless of 
> > > > > > > the format,
> > > > > > > but we should try to minimize it.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > Markdown seems pretty close to the minimal format that lets us 
> > > > > > > express what
> > > > > > > we need. We could also continue to use HTML, but we'd need to use 
> > > > > > > a minimal
> > > > > > > subset--not what we use now (which includes images, scripts, 
> > > > > > > links not part
> > > > > > > of the license, etc).
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > So, looking at your (Maarten's) four points with this in mind:
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 1. Both markdown and HTML (HyperText Markup Language) are markup
> > > > > > > languages, it seems silly to convert one markup language into 
> > > > > > > another.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > This is not a criteria for choosing a format to use.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 2. Adding markdown to the infrastructure creates extra 
> > > > > > > dependancies on
> > > > > > > a conversion between markdown and HTML, one that will probably 
> > > > > > > takes
> > > > > > > more skill and time than doing these licenses immediately in html
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > It does, but the alternative is an HTML->HTML transformation, 
> > > > > > > which is
> > > > > > > arguably more complex because HTML is so expressive. We could 
> > > > > > > make it work
> > > > > > > if we enforced a very limited subset of HTML as the input, though.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 3. Markdown is not a standard and we cannot rely on it to stay the
> > > > > > > same, HTML is.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > This is not actually true, the history of HTML is littered with 
> > > > > > > examples:
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_%28Non-standard_HTML%29#Deprecated_HTML_elements
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > But you're right that Markdown is not currently led by any large 
> > > > > > > standards
> > > > > > > body. I think there are two mitigating factors:
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > (a) The primary uses for these files will be:
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > - to be transformed for general consumption, and
> > > > > > > - to serve as an archive.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > The first is internal to CC only, the second requires at most 
> > > > > > > that the file
> > > > > > > be readable at some point in the future without our help. In 
> > > > > > > other words, we
> > > > > > > do not need every client (browser) to natively understand the 
> > > > > > > format.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > (b) Markdown is so incredibly simple, it's hard to imagine a 
> > > > > > > future where
> > > > > > > someone will be unable to read it:
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > http://etherpad.creativecommons.org/p/markdown-example
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 4. Markdown basically is short hand for HTML, again why would we 
> > > > > > > use it?
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > Simplicity, and as a forcing function to get us to stop putting in
> > > > > > > extraneous content in our licenses.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > Dan
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > > > cc-devel mailing list
> > > > > > > [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) 
> > > > > > > (mailto:[email protected])
> > > > > > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > cc-devel mailing list
> > > > > [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
> > > > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > -- 
> > > > | Greg Grossmeier GPG: B2FA 27B1 F7EB D327 6B8E |
> > > > | http://grossmeier.net (http://grossmeier.net/) A18D 1138 8E47 FAC8 
> > > > 1C7D |
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > cc-devel mailing list
> > > > [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
> > > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > cc-devel mailing list
> > > [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
> > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-devel
> > 
> 

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