# Consistent attribute syntax

**URL:** <https://talk.commonmark.org/t/consistent-attribute-syntax/272>\
**Category:** Extensions\
**Created:** [September 4, 2014, 10:28am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/consistent-attribute-syntax/272 "2014-09-04T10:28:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 62

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**Author:** ![mb21](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/mb21/32/162_2.png) [@mb21](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/mb21)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2014, 12:15pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/consistent-attribute-syntax/272/62 "2014-10-09T12:15:48Z")

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> [@nexussays](#):
>
> If you honestly need syntax that complex, just use HTML.

That’s not an option for those of us using Markdown to export to other formats like TeX as well.

Also, as I said above:

> [@mb21](#):
>
> I agree that markdown should first and foremost be simple and email-like. But adding attributes is an advanced feature that most people will never use but is invaluable for the few of us that do.

Finally, Kramdown, Pandoc and MarkdownExtra already have some kind of attribute syntax and as described [in the draft](https://mb21.github.io/stmd/spec.html#extensions):

> [Attributes] don’t need to be implemented to conform to this spec. However, if an implementation includes [attributes], this spec strongly recommends to implement the syntax described here.

P.S. Just discovered another use case:

Instead of:

```auto
[quote="mb21, post:1, topic:272"]
quoted text
[/quote]

```

which this forum currently uses for quoting other posts, we could use standardized attributes:

```
> quoted text
{quote=mb21 post=1 topic=272}

```

Which is more readable and markdown-like? My point is that there will always be people that want markdown with a little cusomized extra functionality (like e.g. in this forum). Attributes enable this in a uniform way that should soon be familiar to the more advanced users that need it (if it isn’t already) and will reduce the need for many custom extensions like the `[quote][\/quote]`-syntax (which I can’t seem to properly escape in an inline code span).

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_[View the full topic](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/consistent-attribute-syntax/272)._