Markdown and the hCal microformat

[Michel Fortin]

Le 4 août 2006 à 18:43, Michael McCracken a écrit :


> On Aug 3, 2006, at 12:53 PM, Michel Fortin wrote:

>

>> I agree with this. Calendars can be written in a lot of different  

>> ways, and the output expected will vary depending on the  

>> application. Keeping this separate as an extension to Markdown  

>> seems the best.

>

> Did you mean calendars can be marked up in different ways in HTML,  

> or that people will want to write different markdown-style syntax  

> for calendars?


Both. In my view, almost any Markdown-style for calendars is going to  
have limitations which will prevent it to suit some peoples needs.  
And such limitations are going to be reflected by the lack of  
flexibility in the output.

If I'm not mistaken, there are many ways you could format you  
calendar events which are all valid hCalendars. For instance, could  
you not put all your event data in a table of this form:


| Event          | Date           | Location

| -------------- | -------------- | ----------------

| Big meeting    | 23rd June 2002 | Room 200, Bldg 3

| Bigger meeting | 24rd June 2002 | Room 200, Bldg 3


? Sure you could, with the revealing classes and `<abbr>` elements  
put at the right places.

I think the big problem about integration of microformats like  
hCalendar (or hCard) is that they are a purely semantic layer applied  
over the structural markup. It doesn't mean it cannot or shouldn't be  
part of Markdown, but if it does, it probably should acknowledge that  
fact and be flexible enough so that authors can write calendar events  
the way they want.



> I was hoping to start a discussion on what the 'markdown way' to  

> write calendar entries should be.

> I tried to start from what I'd seen in emails, but I was hoping for  

> some feedback about the syntax I came up with.


Ok. Let me review your proposition, which would transform this:

     (23rd June 2002)[Big Meeting @ Room 200, Bldg 3]
     (10am-2pm)[World Cup game]

into this:

     <div class="vcalendar"><span class="vevent">
       <span class="summary">Big Meeting </span>
       <abbr class="dtstart" title="23rd June 2002">23rd June 2002</ 
abbr></span>
       <span class="location">Room 200, Bldg 3</span>
     </div>

     <div class="vcalendar"><span class="vevent">
       <span class="summary">World Cup game</span>
       <abbr class="dtstart" title="10am">10am</abbr></span>
       - <abbr class="dtend" title="2pm">2pm</abbr></span>
     </div>

Beside the inflexibility of the output, what I don't like is that a () 
[] syntax looks like a span-level syntax, while it produce `<div>`s.  
And while it probably is different enough from links in the parser's  
eye, it probably has enough similarities to confuse a beginner.

Also, your repeated "vcalendar" `<div>`s serve no purpose. From the  
hCalendar microformat page:


> Authors may explicitly use elements with class="vcalendar" to wrap  

> sets of vevents that all belong to the same calendar


but you're creating a different calendar for each event!



>> Yes, PHP Markdown, the object oriented version I announced a  

>> little while ago, is better suited for extension than John's Perl  

>> Markdown. But there is no "intelligent" way to add a function in  

>> the middle of the processing chain other than by replacing the  

>> caller function, which makes any extension rather inelegant (but  

>> still better than before). Improving PHP Markdown's extension  

>> capabilities is on my todo list.

>

> As far as extension, I think there will probably be a small set of  

> microformats which could reasonably be included in the core  

> Markdown syntax (assuming that the Markdown community is interested  

> in microformats). Specifically, I mean the hCard contact info and  

> hCal calendar entries.

> If it's just two formats, perhaps extension is unnecessary?  

> (Especially considering that extension support is not present in  

> current Markdown versions?)


The idea of an extension is that you can build the one *you* need,  
and share it with other people who needs it if you want. But it can't  
get in the way (or the processing time) of those who do not have a  
need for it, or those who aren't satisfied with your version of the  
syntax and its corresponding output.

I think that until we have a clean way of integrating hCalendar or  
hCard into various HTML structures from within markdown, it should  
probably remain separate.


Michel Fortin
michel.fortin at michelf.com
http://www.michelf.com/