# What is necessary to get long-standing discussions actually formalized into CommonMark?

**URL:** <https://talk.commonmark.org/t/what-is-necessary-to-get-long-standing-discussions-actually-formalized-into-commonmark/3773>\
**Category:** Meta\
**Created:** [February 4, 2021, 9:27pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/what-is-necessary-to-get-long-standing-discussions-actually-formalized-into-commonmark/3773 "2021-02-04T21:27:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Catija](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/catija/32/2164_2.png) [@Catija](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/Catija)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2021, 9:46pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/what-is-necessary-to-get-long-standing-discussions-actually-formalized-into-commonmark/3773/8 "2021-02-10T21:46:40Z")

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That seems like a clear enough separation - but the statement that jgm wrote implies there might be cases where it’s necessary to include what might otherwise be an extension as part of core, or am I misunderstanding. Here’s the quote:

> [@How to move ahead with extending CommonMark](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/how-to-move-ahead-with-extending-commonmark/3706/13):
>
> But I do agree that it would be possible to treat `|` an inline element called a “cell separator” that would have a context-sensitive meaning: in a paragraph it would simply render as a literal `|`, and in a table row it would split cells. This approach would require making tables a part of the core spec (which is not a problem really). This is certainly an approach worth considering.

That seems like it only applies in an edge case but that edge case might also be an approach that is considered.

I do like the suggestion that @vas makes about opting for something to be an extension vs core depending on whether it’s a feature that should be universal everywhere that uses CommonMark or if it’s something that a platform can opt to add on but, that may also not work if there are cases where it’s necessary for it to be part of the core for the functionality to work fully.

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