# John MacFarlane

> American philosopher and programmer

**Wikidata**: [Q15821559](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15821559)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_MacFarlane_(philosopher))  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/john-macfarlane

## Summary
John MacFarlane is an American philosopher and programmer who has served as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley since 2000. He is best known for creating Pandoc, a widely used universal document converter, and for his role in developing the CommonMark specification for Markdown. His work bridges the gap between academic philosophy and practical software engineering.

## Biography
- **Born:** November 28, 1967
- **Nationality:** United States
- **Education:** Doctor of Philosophy (Philosophy); Attended University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University
- **Known for:** Creating Pandoc, CommonMark, and Gitit; contributions to philosophy
- **Employer(s):** University of California, Berkeley (2000–present)
- **Field(s):** Philosophy, Software Development
- **Languages:** English, German, French, Latin, Ancient Greek

## Contributions
John MacFarlane has made distinct contributions to both the academic field of philosophy and the software development community.

In software, MacFarlane developed **Pandoc**, an open-source universal document converter that is widely regarded as a standard tool for converting files between formats (such as Markdown to PDF or DOCX). He is also a central figure in the **CommonMark** project, an effort to create a standardized, unambiguous specification for the Markdown language. For CommonMark, he authored **cmark**, the reference implementation in the C programming language. Additionally, he created **Gitit**, a wiki program that stores its content in a git distributed revision control repository.

In academia, MacFarlane serves as a university teacher at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy under the advisement of philosopher Robert Brandom. His scholarly work has been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which he is a member.

## FAQs

### Q: What software did John MacFarlane create?
A: John MacFarlane created **Pandoc**, a universal document converter, and **cmark**, the C reference implementation for CommonMark. He also developed **Gitit**, a wiki platform.

### Q: Where does John MacFarlane teach?
A: He has been employed by the **University of California, Berkeley** since 2000, where he works as a university teacher and philosopher.

### Q: What is John MacFarlane's academic background?
A: He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in philosophy and attended Harvard University and the University of Pittsburgh. His doctoral advisor was Robert Brandom.

## Why They Matter
John MacFarlane's impact stems from his unique ability to systematize complex logic for both human understanding and machine processing. By creating **Pandoc**, he provided the technical community with a critical interoperability tool that simplifies document workflows across countless formats, effectively solving "vendor lock-in" for text documents. His work on **CommonMark** addressed a long-standing issue in web development where Markdown implementations diverged; his reference implementation (cmark) helped standardize how text is rendered on the web. Simultaneously, his philosophical work contributes to the rigorous analysis of logic and language. His membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences underscores that his contributions are not merely technical tools but are recognized as significant intellectual achievements.

## Notable For
- **Creator of Pandoc:** Developed the "swiss-army knife" of document conversion.
- **CommonMark Standardization:** Developed `cmark`, the reference implementation for standardized Markdown.
- **Academic Recognition:** Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- **Cross-Disciplinary Expertise:** Holds a PhD in Philosophy while maintaining active status as a software developer and maintainer.
- **UC Berkeley Faculty:** Long-standing tenure as a professor starting in 2000.

## Body

### Academic Career
John MacFarlane is a philosopher and university teacher who has been employed by the University of California, Berkeley since 2000. He received his academic training at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University, earning a Doctor of Philosophy with a focus on philosophy. His dissertation was advised by Robert Brandom. MacFarlane has supervised doctoral students, including Omar Aziz Mirza. In addition to his teaching duties, he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

### Software Development and Standards
Outside of his philosophical work, MacFarlane is an active software engineer.
*   **Pandoc:** A Haskell library for converting documents between formats, widely used in scientific and technical writing.
*   **CommonMark:** He contributed to the specification of CommonMark and authored `cmark`, its reference implementation in C.
*   **Gitit:** A wiki system backed by a git repository.
*   **Open Source Presence:** He maintains repositories on GitHub under the username `jgm` and has packages available on Hackage.

### Personal Details
*   **Full Name:** John MacFarlane
*   **Aliases:** jgm
*   **Birth Date:** November 28, 1967
*   **Gender:** Male
*   **Citizenship:** United States
*   **Website:** https://johnmacfarlane.net/

## References

1. [Source](http://johnmacfarlane.net/macfarlane-cv.html)
2. Mathematics Genealogy Project
3. Integrated Authority File
4. Virtual International Authority File