Ordered list syntax.

[Lou Quillio]

On Mar 26, 2004, at 8:35 PM, Daniel Axelrod wrote, in part:

>> 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.
> Actually, how would this work in HTML? Would you need to use CSS to  
> make the numbers come out correctly? And are there any cases this  
> would happen in which the non-list paragraphs couldn't actually be  
> part of the list items?

Okay, this is a stretch on my part.  You could longhand the enumeration  
in such case; it'd be kinda obsessive to insist that list items  
interspersed in a larger text block be marked-up as <ol><li>s.  My  
interest is in deploying MD in content management systems for  
unsophisticated users.  Since God knows what they'll do, the thing  
would need to be a little more bulletproof than MD's core objectives  
require.

Then again, XHTML/CSS2 makes provision for starting, pausing, and  
resuming numbered lists, and other customizations.  More folks than me  
see a need for it, evidently.

On CSS:  
http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/markdown-discuss/2004-March/ 
000206.html

Again, unless I'm mistaken, XHTML (vs. HTML4) validation demands that  
any list customization be done with CSS.  Which sucks, because MD  
otherwise confines itself to XHTML markup.  If MD must write inline  
style attributes to get this done, is that gonna fight with linked or  
style-block declarations in a templated environment?  Might, especially  
if the author isn't also the template author.

But, hey, it ain't my baby.  Seems to me, though, that list-tweaking is  
a particular challenge for MD.  I'm sure its Dad will make the right  
call.

LQ

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


On Mar 26, 2004, at 8:35 PM, Daniel Axelrod wrote:

> On Friday, March 26, 2004, at 01:56  PM, Lou Quillio wrote:  
> (completely snipped, sliced, and diced for my own quoting convenience)
>> Also, you might want to quote (cite) a single item from an ordered  
>> list in other material.
> OK, this just convinced me of the need for one-item ordered lists. You  
> should be able to paste in part of a Markdown-formated ordered list  
> and have it work correctly.
>
>> 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.
> Actually, how would this work in HTML? Would you need to use CSS to  
> make the numbers come out correctly? And are there any cases this  
> would happen in which the non-list paragraphs couldn't actually be  
> part of the list items?
>
>> (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.
> While this may be true, I'm not sure if syntax decisions should be  
> made on the basis of implementation details. Then again, that's all up  
> to John Gruber.
>
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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lou Quillio
P.O. Box 24
Saratoga Springs, NY, USA 12866
518.796.0256 (cell)
http://quillio.com/