Comment by sunir

3 years ago

If you are curious, Clifford Adams and I originated the double brackets for UseModWiki to support Wikipedia’s initial roll out (on UseModWiki) and their need for “free links” instead of WikiWords. Prior to that I don’t know of any use of that syntax.

Systems following were cloning Wikipedia I assume.

I am glad I am still causing endless chittering about syntax choices twenty years on. I am sure my gravestone will be “[[RIP]]”.

Single brackets were used for numbered or named “footnotes” by the way.

Here is the design discussion.

http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/FreeLink

2 comments

sunir

Reply
amitp  3 years ago

Interesting! I've wondered about that. (Also: hi again! we seem to have so many shared interests over the decades — bbs, usenet, gamedev, c2 wiki, programming languages — that we should meet up someday)

  • sunir  3 years ago

    Well, come hang out on MeatballWiki. I reopened it during the pandemic for us lost digital souls.