[wiki-standards] Time for a real wiki standard - suggested aims - comments?

[Mike Haseler]

=Preamble=

The current and literally primary goal of creole is to be "collision 
free". As such it is not only unachievable, (all wikis collide with 
simple text entry where every character is its own) but by trying to 
satisfy everyone it cannot set rigorous standards for fear of collision, 
so it fails to achieve the clarity required of a standard which can be 
used where it is necessary to be draconian and say whether any 
particular text entry is or is not "compatible".

The following is my proposed amended goals for creole, which on 
reflection is unlikely to go anywhere given the clear goal of "being 
nice to everyone" inherent in the present creole project.

=Aims and Objectives of 'Kirk'=

(including my own 'nice-to-haves' which I will leave in, so that 
everyone can criticise something)

==Audience==

This specification is intended to be read by those developing 
applications using markup to format text.

==General Aims==

The aim of 'kirk' is to mark up text so as to differentiate between 
sections, ascribing additional properties such as emphasis or marking as 
a heading to allow the application to convey this information through 
its own choice of formatting.

More specifically:

1. to specify generic relative text formatting for free-flowing text 
providing the common elements used for headings, emphasis and notes, 
(i.e. leaving the actual choice of font, actual, rather than relative, 
size, position on page margins,etc. to the implementation)

2. to create a markup specification use able across a range of applications

3. to create a markup usable across the range of different languages 
without a requirement to know English

4. to develop a logical and consistent syntax which is both intuitive 
and practical

5. to allow simple inline links: intra-page, intra-application and internet

6. to allow simple inline inclusion of images

7. to specify the bare minimum text layout formatting allowing 
paragraphs, newlines, lists, indents, and tables

8. to include provision for common text formatting including, levels of 
headings, codeblocks, horizontal lines, quotations, references and 
signatures

9. to specify the mechanism for application specific extensions

==Kirk Environment==

Kirk describes the manner of display rather than the output to display. 
It takes raw text and describes how this will affect the characters 
shown to the user. In a typical environment such as the internet, the 
application will need to translate some characters to avoid conflict 
with e.g. HTML. Whilst kirk is intended to work with HTML, the 
specification does not cover how creole will be translated for any 
particular use.


Mike