We recount an episode where a long discussed software modification is made within the context of online tools including wiki as one of those tools, doing work, not just talking about it. The work-talk is in specialized markups.
Chorus of Voices asks, what words will mean things in the context of various representations? How will they form sentences that get things done? If each representation has its own markup how will these expressions influence representations outside their realm of discourse.
Correct Markdown describes a rewrite of the text formatting offered by the Markdown plugin. The work there is work on wiki done in wiki. We focus on this page while acknowledging the role github and npm also play.
We share pages within a community described by a single Roster plugin and transcluded into others with markup.
ROSTER goals.pods.wiki.org/goals-for-federated-wiki
We retrieve work products from the larger federation with the Search plugin marked up to find examples.
SEARCH PLUGINS markdown
We deploy improvements throughout the federation with drag and drop of Plugmatic plugin marked up to do so.
wiki-plugin-markdown
Three plugins, Roster, Search, and Plugmatic, render graphically the work they do. We use these three as specialized tools as we improve a fourth plugin, the Markdown text formatter. All four render markup but three of the four are doing work as this rendering takes place.
The story now is short.
Paul reminds us that an improved markdown would solve formatting problems of others.
I'm fearful and start the page as a position statement.
Paul completes the mentions of his related work and begins coding on a branch.
I test the branch based on pages others write in markdown and share observations.
Paul tunes his implementation accordingly and publishes.
I add the installer as a conclusion to the page and press the button it offers.
This story generalizes to anywhere in the digital realm which today means everywhere. We choose a wiki for wiki case because this work took place in public. Public or private, wiki solves sharing first and then solves the problems at hand with built-for-purpose plugins that need not be shared beyond the community that needs them.