cites for blockquotes

[John Gruber]

David McCreath <mccreath at kadmium.net> wrote on 03/18/04 at 2:47p:

> Another direction to go would be to think in terms of writing flow and
> standard English writing practice. The quoting mechanism in email is useful
> for scanning down a document where the writer/spreaker changes from block to
> block, like a script, but it's not how I think about quotes in writing,
> where *I* use someone else's words, then switch back to mine. But the quoted
> person isn't actually in the monologue.
> 
> If I'm quoting someone at length, I put the citation afterwards to keep the
> reading flow uninterrupted. In that respect something like 
> 
>   > Now is the time for all good men to come
>   > to the aid of their country.
>   --http://example.com/

The "em-dash followed by attribution" strikes me as something very
different than a blockquote `cite` attribute. I look at the above,
and it looks to me like something like this (not Markdown- or even
proposed-Markdown-formatted):

    They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
    temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

    --Benjamin Franklin

In other words, attributing the quote to someone in a way where the
attribution is clearly intended to be part of the displayed text.

I think this would be a bad idea to use for Markdown's blockquote
citation syntax, because what if you wanted to include an
attribution in the quote itself?

For example, what if I wanted to produce this:

    <blockquote cite="http://ushistory.org/franklin/quotable/quote04.htm">
        <p>They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
        temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.</p>
    
        <p>--Benjamin Franklin</p>
    </blockquote>

I think it'd be awkward to write:

    > They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
    > temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
    > 
    > --Benjamin Franklin
    -- http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/quotable/quote04.htm


-J.G.