# Proposing a Macro standard for Markdown

**URL:** <https://talk.commonmark.org/t/proposing-a-macro-standard-for-markdown/609>\
**Category:** Extensions\
**Created:** [September 16, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/proposing-a-macro-standard-for-markdown/609 "2014-09-16T01:41:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![howardroark](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/howardroark/32/399_2.png) [@howardroark](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/howardroark)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/proposing-a-macro-standard-for-markdown/609/1 "2014-09-16T01:41:22Z")

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I am working on a narrative to state the case for how Macros should be implemented in Markdown. Any feedback or contributions are welcome!

> **[howardroark/Markdown-Macros](https://github.com/howardroark/Markdown-Macros)**
>
> An attempt to define a Macro standard for Markdown. - howardroark/Markdown-Macros

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**Author:** ![nichtich](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/nichtich/32/226_2.png) [@nichtich](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/nichtich)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 7:39pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/proposing-a-macro-standard-for-markdown/609/2 "2014-09-16T19:39:47Z")

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The current best practice is to express macros in code sections to trigger rewriting of the AST on execution of this sections. Have a look for instance at [http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com](http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com) or [https://github.com/typesetters/p5-App-pandoc-preprocess](https://github.com/typesetters/p5-App-pandoc-preprocess)

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**Author:** ![howardroark](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/howardroark/32/399_2.png) [@howardroark](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/howardroark)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2014, 1:40pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/proposing-a-macro-standard-for-markdown/609/3 "2014-09-19T13:40:53Z")

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Thanks for the info! I think my main point is that it’s better off for Marcos to be arbitrary blocks of text that the browser eventually deals with. Treat the Macro text the same as a paragraph. This way Macros are encouraged to be written in human readable formats. It also ends up helping a lot with search-ability. Plus you let the browser do all the hard work!

Though after a lot of thinking I have come to the conclusion that nothing can ever really be “added” to Markdown without Gruber’s approval. GFM has a [sort of approval](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/10/23/github-flavored-markdown), so their additions should hold weight. I can live with that, it is just how people think. For now I am just going to write about the idea and build up the case here [https://github.com/codingcoop/markdown-macros](https://github.com/codingcoop/markdown-macros)