> So not changing a spec for over a decade should not be considered pathological but actually commendable, if the nature of spec is complete enough for it's purpose.
The "nature of the spec is complete enough for its purpose" is the part that's not met, though (at least in many people's minds). The Markdown "spec" (either the description written by Gruber or the `Markdown.pl` file) has ambiguities and inconsistent behavior. My understanding is that there were many requests from the community for this to be clarified, but it never was. So I think a decade of inattention is not commendable in this instance. The CommonMark landing page[0] has some more about this issue.
The "nature of the spec is complete enough for its purpose" is the part that's not met, though (at least in many people's minds). The Markdown "spec" (either the description written by Gruber or the `Markdown.pl` file) has ambiguities and inconsistent behavior. My understanding is that there were many requests from the community for this to be clarified, but it never was. So I think a decade of inattention is not commendable in this instance. The CommonMark landing page[0] has some more about this issue.
[0] https://commonmark.org/#why