Ordered list syntax.

[John Gruber]

Jason Clark <jason at jclark.org> wrote on 03/25/04 at 5:38p:

> You can currently see this in action right on the Markdown Project 
> Page.  In the section on Blosxom is an ordered list of step to setup 
> Markdown for use with Blosxom.  The fourth step is (from the [markdown 
> source][1]):
> 
> 4.    If you'd like to apply Markdown formatting only to certain
>   posts, rather than all of them, Markdown can optionally be used in
>   conjunction with Blosxom's [Meta][] plug-in. First, install the
>   Meta plug-in. Next, open the Markdown plug-in file in a text
>   editor, and set the configuration variable $g_blosxom_use_meta to
>   1. Then, simply include a `meta-markup: Markdown` header line at
>   the top of each post you compose using Markdown.

Well, you can't see it any more because I re-wrapped it. :^)

But it was a good catch and a good point.

What if we change the rule so that you must use at least 2 spaces
after the dot, *if* you really want to make a one-item list:

    1.  This is a list item.

but:

    1. This is not.

On the one hand, this would solve the ambiguity.

On the other hand, it's not exactly intuitive.

I definitely don't want to require two or more spaces after the dot
for *all* numbered lists, because I think it's very natural to use
just one space.

We want two things:

1.  To make it hard to accidentally trigger a list.
2.  To make it possible to create a single-item list.

"At least two spaces after the dot for a single-item list" is the
best rule I can think of that accomplishes both.

-J.G.