Definition lists

[John Gruber]

Michel Fortin <michel.fortin at michelf.com> wrote on 07/27/05 at 12:11 pm:


> Agree. Next version of PHP Markdown Extra will work like this.

> 

> > How would this look for dict lists with paragraphs?

> >

> >     Term A

> >     Term B

> >

> >     :   Here's the first paragraph of the definition of Terms A

> >         and B. Blah blah blah.

> >

> >         Here's the second paragraph.

> >

> >     Term C

> >     Term D

> >

> >     :   This definition contains a paragraph followed by a blockquote.

> 

> I think it look nice. Currently, PHP Markdown Extra only deal with one 

> line per term, one term per definition, but there is no reason it 

> couldn't support more than one term per definition.


My hunch is that this is the way to go. I offered the "trailing
colon" idea as something to do if we think we do need punctuation
for terms, but on the whole, it's probably more elegant, easier, and
better-looking not to use any punctuation characters at all for the
terms.



> Do we need multiple-line terms? I don't think so.


I don't think so either. I really think that if your terms are that
long, you probably shouldn't be using a dict list. And even then,
you could still use Markdown, you just couldn't hard-wrap your very
long terms.

-J.G.