[chc]

Gruber is a writer who covers Apple stuff first, and a developer only when he has an itch to scratch.

Just the same, though, Markdown is a pretty big deal. It's the de facto standard for content markup. I wouldn't call John Gruber a nobody.

[phil]

Notably, it's a piece of software in which well-developed minimalism gets you better results than anything else.

[JeremyBanks]

The idea is good, but his execution and follow-through leaves something to be desired: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/12/responsible-open-so...

[quadform]

I've found that [Pandoc](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/) has picked up the Markdown torch. It's got the most-needed additions using the probably least-controversial markup additions. Works great, is fast, well-documented, and is actively-maintained.

[kellysutton]

Where does it tell me how to write in Pandoc? Hard not to dismiss outright.

[angus77]

http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/README.html#pandocs-markdow...

[chc]

Eh, again, scratching an itch. He could have done more, but that wasn't his main goal. He doesn't make money off Markdown or anything, so his only real concern with it is how it serves his needs. My point was just that developing software, even popular software, isn't entirely foreign to him.

[wyclif]

I thought HTML was the standard for content markup.