Code blocks, the colon and French

[Michel Fortin]

Hi,

I'm building my own website management system (to be open source if it 
is ever finished) and I'm currently using Textile, but seriously 
considering switching to Markdown.

I suppose that's great, but half of my website is in French. The 
problem is that the code block syntax is somewhat "incompatible" with 
the French typographical standard that tend to also put a space 
*before* the colon. Writing something like that:

> Exemple de code :
>
>     <?php echo "Bonjour" ?>

produce this:

> <p>Exemple de code</p>
>
> <pre><code>&lt;?php echo "Bonjour" ?&gt;
> </code></pre>

and the colon is lost, but it should not.

May I suggest that a change to this rule:

> If you don’t want a colon to appear in your HTML output, put a space 
> before it.

for this rule:

> If you don’t want a colon to appear in your HTML output, put any 
> ponctuation mark before it.

This would keep most of the current syntax untouched while still 
allowing to put a space before the colon.

> A regular paragraph, without a colon. :
>
>     This is a code block.
>
> A regular paragraph, with a colon :
>
>     This is a code block.

So what do you think?

Michel Fortin
michel.fortin at michelf.com
http://www.michelf.com/