Re: File Extension Consensus

[Arno Hautala]

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 15:01,   wrote:
>>   why do we need a "standard" anyway?
>
> for the same reason any file "needs" a descriptive extension --
> so the humans will know something about that file's contents...

I think this is cuts to the reason why Gruber doesn't care to "bless"
an extension.
The way I see it, Markdown isn't meant to take over the format of a
file, it's a way to subtly add information to the plaintext.
Really, the presence of Markdown is metadata, not a file format.

The real reason people want a standard extension is so their
_programs_ know that it can be interpreted, colored, etc. according to
Markdown's syntax.
It's relevant to name XML data as ".xhtml" or ".plist" because it
informs both users and programs as to the content to expect and how to
handle it.
No one opening a text file will be confused if they find Markdown
syntax, it's pure bonus.

In this sense, it makes sense to use ".text", ".txt", or whatever
other plaintext extension is relevant.

A far better solution to identifying files containing Markdown would
be to define an Extended Attribute such as:
net.daringfireball.markdown
Markdown extensions like PHPMarkdownExtra could add data to that
attribute, or define their own, as in: com.michelf.phpmarkdownextra or
com.michelf.markdown.extra

This seems like a more appropriate way to identify that "file.txt",
which is plaintext above all else, also contains Markdown
"formatting".

An editor which knows nothing about Markdown won't care about the
metadata and won't be confused by the variety of "non-standard"
extensions, but will display and edit the plaintext just fine.

-- 
arno  s  hautala    /-|   a...@alum.wpi.edu

pgp f81c4e00
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re: File Extension Consensus

[Bowerbird]

>why do we need a "standard" anyway?

for the same reason any file "needs" a descriptive extension --
so the humans will know something about that file's contents...

in this case, the need-to-know is that the file can be displayed
in a more esoteric and pleasing way if the human desires that...

and i would also suspect, at this time when the ordinary person
is totally unaware of markdown and its benefits, that consistent
use of an extension might well serve to prod the curiosity of the
more curious of the species, and thus help to spread the word...

myself, i'd be satisfied if our computers would auto-recognize 
any markdown files and render them in the sophisticated style.

but it seems we've crippled our computers by making them so
dumb that they, too, rely on file-extensions, almost completely.

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Re: File Extension Consensus

[Waylan Limberg]

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 8:47 AM, Seumas Mac Uilleachan  wrote:
> Since generally
> where needed the extension can be custom defined, why do we need a
> "standard" anyway?

For this reason I have been silent on this issue. [^1]

> On 06/11/10 06:59 PM, Brett wrote:
>>
>> Here are the results from the limited data set provided. It looks like
>> 'markdown' is the winner followed by 'mdown'. Third place is a tie between
>> 'text' and 'md'.
>>
>> If usage sets a standard, then 'markdown' is the standard.

However, I will say that standard or not, I doubt I will ever use
"markdown" as a file extension.  Call me lazy if you like, but I
simply don't want to type that much every time.  I prefer "txt" and if
I must use something else (for example on github) I'll use "md".

Truth be told, in many situations I see no reason for any special
designation. Docs for my projects on github are written in makdown and
all have "txt" for file extensions. Yes, they then display as plan
text. I don't care. If github some day adds a feature where they
figure out I'm using markdown and convert my docs to html, that's fine
too.

On the other hand, while something like [Github Pages] does need to
know what markup language a document is written in, it shouldn't need
to rely on a file extension for that info.  As Github Pages is just an
instance of [Jekyll] (of which there are many clones) and Jekyll
source files all require [metadata], and the metadata is always in the
same format regardless of the markup language used, then the metadata
could easily include the markup language used regardless of the file
extension. Hey, then I could use ".txt" for everything. I think I'll
go file a bug report with Jekyll.

[Github Pages]: http://pages.github.com/
[Jekyll]: http://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/
[metadata]: https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/wiki/YAML-Front-Matter

[^1]: I can't help but notice that the other implementors have been
silent as well. I suspect that in part it is because we have all had
this discussion before. For some, because we really don't care.And in
part, because it really doesn't matter. It's the later for me mostly.

-- 

\X/ /-\ `/ |_ /-\ |\|
Waylan Limberg
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Re: File Extension Consensus

[Seumas Mac Uilleachan]

I use Markdown in a homegrown wiki, thus use "wiki". I have come across 
other Markdown wikis that don't use an extension at all. Since generally 
where needed the extension can be custom defined, why do we need a 
"standard" anyway?


On 06/11/10 06:59 PM, Brett wrote:

Here are the results from the limited data set provided. It looks like 
'markdown' is the winner followed by 'mdown'. Third place is a tie between 
'text' and 'md'.

If usage sets a standard, then 'markdown' is the standard.


Used by Multiple Sources


* markdown - BBEdit, Elements, GitHub, Gruber, 
TextMate
* mdown - Elements, GitHub, TextMate
* text - BBEdit, Gruber
* md - Elements, GitHub


Used by One Source
--

* mark - BBEdit
* mdwn - Elements
* mkd - GitHub
* mkdn - GitHub


Suggested
-

* mdtext
* mdtxt
* mtext

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