Paragraphs and Line Breaks

[Michel Fortin]

Le 4 juil. 2005, à 13:36, Angie Ahl a écrit :


> Not really. I'm trying to work out why the double space is needed as 

> the Markup code already treats 2 return as the end of a para so I 

> can't see why the double space is required.


This rule is needed when you want to make your text pretty. Let's say 
you have a list, you can indent the content like this:

	1.  This is a small
	    paragraph with
	    three lines.

	    It also has a
	    second paragraph.

     2.  Second item with
	    two lines.

Ok, you usually write your lines longer than that, but the point is 
that if you convert every line break by `<br />` like you suggest, you 
can't align the lines yourself. You will have let your text editor 
auto-wrapping method show you something like this:

	1.  This is a small
	paragraph with three
     lines.

	    It also has a
	second paragraph.

     2.  Second item with
	two lines.

In the same way, blockquotes written that way:

	> This is a blockquote
	> that span on multiple
	> lines.
	>
	> It also have a second
	> paragraph.

will need to be changed like this (displayed as if auto-wrap was 
present):

	> This is a blockquote
	that span on multiple
	lines.
	>
	> It also have a second
	paragraph.


I find this less readable. But if this is not inconvenient to you, feel 
free to change your Markdown copy to accomodate your needs. It is 
open-source for a reason.


Michel Fortin
michel.fortin at michelf.com
http://www.michelf.com/