text/markdown effort in IETF (invite)

[Karl Dubost]

Hi,

Michel Fortin said:
> Markdown is in the spot where HTML was before HTML5 with each implementation doing its own thing. I don't know if Markdown will get out of there anytime soon.

Yes basically. And it's why Ciro Santilli has done an amazing work upon the [test suite][1] I have started. 

[1]: https://github.com/karlcow/markdown-testsuite

The "issue" with Markdown and its flavors is that it is mainly used: 

* as        an input format for something else, aka in a converter scenario
* more than an exchange format with multiple emitters/consumers needing interoperability.

It starts to change with the rise of some clients and this ties to the mime-type "issue":

> I'll point out however that HTML never got anything like a "flavor" parameter in its MIME type, and even if it did it'd not have helped clear the mess in any way.

Yup agreed. A [MIME type][2] is useful in the case of "exchange format" when an emitter and a receiver needs to understand what they are exchanging. In the case of the input format, there is no issue because the environment is constrained. When you play with multiple clients, the interoperability story becomes interesting.

[2]: http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-seantek-text-markdown-media-type-00

-- 
Karl Dubost 🐄
http://www.la-grange.net/karl/