[Phpwiki-talk] WikiMarkupStandard WG mailing list

[Mario S. <ma...@er...>]

The process to standardize/harmonize/document a basic common WikiMarkup
is currently revived by creation of a mailing list (we hope so):

  http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?WikiMarkupStandardWorkingGroup

It hasn't started yet, initial discussions may be lame and so, and it
may get lengthy (many votings) and unfruitful as well. I however ask
that anybody interested in it, joins now or later to bring in some
personal opinions and recommendations.

It's clear that a unified WikiMarkup won't match the markup of any
existing WikiEngine, it's already too divorced for that. However as for
PhpWiki and others, there is a big chance that many things are already
what the final "WikiMarkupStandard" document (a RFC is planned) could
tell. At least WikiWords and italic, bold markup will remain; and the
final recommendation (what I'd personally prefer as title) of course
won't forbid or deprecate any extended markup capabilities of existing
WikiEngines. On the contrary it will promote that, the whole effort is
only about getting the basics somewhat similar for many Wikis, so that
WWW users may more easily switch from one site+system to another.

IMO we'll register for a MIME Media Type that later allows use to use
something like "Content-Type: text/wiki; variant=phpwiki" or so. This
will ease using Wiki with WebDav and AtomApi (not that I deem either
very urgent ;)  and even EMail (for mailing lists like that here) if
possible.

The whole effort is for the benefit of users, and whoever has the time
should join the mailing list now and help it succeed (many compromises
from everybody are neccessary to get there). There will of course be
a final WikiWorldWide voting (another invitation will get sent out) on
the outcome of this effort; won't get published if there is too broad
disagreement. It's however better, if ideas and conflicts with the
implementation in existing WikiEngines get to the surface as early as
possible.


Regards,
mario
(please Cc: me)