Ordered list syntax.

[Lou Quillio]

>> 2.  To make it possible to create a single-item list.
>>
> Why do we want #2?  I have to think that is such an infrequent need 
> that it's better to avoid it.  I can always use HTML for that entry.  
> Plus, counting spaces seems like a non-intuitive way to go.

But (1) single-item *unordered* lists are common, (2) users will expect 
the MD syntax for ordered and unordered lists to be similar, (3) the 
XHTML transformation programmatics of both will overlap by about 90%, 
so ... (4) single-item ordered lists will be a by-product of any 
reasonable list-handling solution.  As a practical matter it'd be 
harder to exclude them than include them.

Also, you might have an ordered list that pauses and resumes within a 
series of non-list paragraphs.  It'd be a list in human semantics, but 
the MD syntax (and transformed XHTML markup) would have to handle it as 
a series of single-item lists.

Also, you might want to quote (cite) a single item from an ordered list 
in other material.

So they *do* happen in the course of writing, if rarely, and there's no 
real economy to be had on the code-side -- there might even be an 
expense to excluding them.

Maybe most importantly, John will receive an endless stream of 
inquiries into why MD won't do them.  Endless.  Why ask for that, if 
you can avoid it?

LQ

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lou Quillio
P.O. Box 24
Saratoga Springs, NY, USA 12866
518.796.0256 (cell)
http://quillio.com/


On Mar 26, 2004, at 11:16 AM, Jason Clark wrote:

>
> On Mar 25, 2004, at 6:08 PM, John Gruber wrote:
>
>> 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.
>>
> Why do we want #2?  I have to think that is such an infrequent need 
> that it's better to avoid it.  I can always use HTML for that entry.  
> Plus, counting spaces seems like a non-intuitive way to go.
>
> If you really want #2, what about this;
>
> #. A one-item list.
>
> Can't imagine any reason for typing that except to create a list.
>
>
> Jason Clark <jason at jclark.org>
> http://jclark.org/weblog/
>
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