Colon before Code Blocks

[Craig Morgan]

Alexander,

See John's earlier response (quoted below) amongst a dicsussion of 
intermingled code blocks and lists ...

> I'm not sure what I'll end up doing here.
> 
> For sure, Markdown should never produce invalid markup like what's
> coming out of your example. There are always going to be edge cases
> where Markdown doesn't do exactly what you hope it does, but at the
> very least, it should always generate valid XHTML.
> 
> One thing I discussed last week is that I'm not happy with
> Markdown's current syntax for code blocks. The rules about colons
> are just too complicated. So, soon, the rule is going to change so
> that code blocks are simply indented blocks of text. No special
> rules at all about preceding colons. If a block is indented by 4
> spaces/1 tab, then it's a code block.
> 
> I'm not sure at this point what the rule will be about having blank
> lines before and after a code block, however. No matter what,
> though, the rules for blank lines before and/or after code blocks
> will be clearly defined.
> 
> Perhaps I can work it out so that, in general, code blocks will
> require a blank line before and after, but within a list item, you
> will be able to use them without blank lines, so you can insert a
> `<pre>` block within the `<li>` without having in-list `<p>` tags.

HTH

Craig

Alexander Johannes wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> i cant see why it is necessary to put a colon before the paragraph,  
> that should be formatted as a code block. I know, that i can put a  
> space before the colon, so that it dont appears in the output, but i  
> also would like to provide the pure markdown-formatted text to post it  
> to the usenet, or print it. In this cases, the single colon occurs a  
> little bit misplaced. Currently i'm reformatting  
> <http://faq.de-soc-mac.de/> to use Markdown and i found several  
> articles, where i have to put a colon before a code block, though it  
> wouldn't be necessary, when you consider the context of the paragraph  
> or sentence.
> Maybe i should provide an example°, even if it is in german:
> 
> ----
> Durch die Eingabe von
> 
>     sudo diskutil disableJournal /
> 
> kann man diese Aktion rückgängig machen.
> ----
> 
> This is better readable than typing
> 
> ----
> Durch die Eingabe von `sudo diskutil disableJournal /` kann man diese  
> Aktion rückgängig machen.
> ----
> 
> At the moment i have to write
> 
> ----
> Durch die Eingabe von :
> 
>     sudo diskutil disableJournal /
> 
> kann man diese Aktion rückgängig machen.
> ----
> 
> to force Markdown to format the second line as exspected. This is  
> semantically wrong.
> 
> To come to an end: is there a technical reason, doing it this way, or  
> do i have to exspect a change in a future Release of Markdown? If it  
> has already discussed at the past, i would be glad, if you point me to  
> that discussion in the archive.
> 
> Apart from that, i'm very happy with Markdown, because i felt instantly  
> home, wehen i started using it. Thanks for the great work :)!
> 
> Alex
> 
> °) The example is taken from  <http://faq.de-soc-mac.de/systempflege/ 
> wie_verhalte_ich_mich_nach_einem_systemabsturz_unter_os_x.shtml> resp.  
> <http://faq.de-soc-mac.de/systempflege/ 
> wie_verhalte_ich_mich_nach_einem_systemabsturz_unter_os_x.text>.
> 
> 
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> 
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-- 
Craig

Craig Morgan                              Sun Microsystems Ltd
Senior Training Instructor                Enterprise Services
SES UK                                    Citygate
                                           Cross Street
Email:  craig.morgan at sun.com              Sale, Cheshire
Tel:    +44 (0)161 905 8155               UK
Fax:    +44 (0)161 962 4150               M33 7JF

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