numbered list bug in markdown.pl?

[Waylan Limberg]

On 7/12/06, Michel Fortin <michel.fortin at michelf.com> wrote:
[snip]

> Personally, I'd go the route of requiring an increasing character

> count for numeric markers when they are right-aligned because I think

> it is the less damaging thing to do to current Markdown text and

> because it makes sense visually. The previous example would be

> equivalent to this:

>

>      1.  List item

>      10. List item

>      20. List item

>          2.  List item

>

> As would this:

>

>       1. List item

>      2. List item

>      3. List item

>       4. List item

>

> Not perfect, as it still breaks the rule saying you can use any

> number as list marker when numbers are more than one character and

> right-aligned, but it is the best compromise I can think of. What do

> you think?

>

That is how the python implementation currently works with one
exception. The fourth item would not be a sublist as it is not
indented by at least 4 spaces. The thing about enforcing at least four
spaces is that it allows right aligning numbers up to three digits
without interference. I realize many people using perl/php/other
implementations may have many documents which do not strictly indent
sublists at least four spaces though, so that is a backward
compatibility issue. However, that is the so called "undocumented
feature" which the documentation actually does not seem to support. It
says:


> List markers typically start at the left margin, but may be

> indented by up to three spaces. List markers must be

> followed by one or more spaces or a tab.


That would indicate that three spaces or less would never create a
sublist. IMHO all those people who have been using only one space for
a sublist are just being lazy and when the bug is fixed their laziness
will bit them back. Perhaps that sounds harsh, but as A. Pagaltzis
said:

On 7/12/06, A. Pagaltzis <pagaltzis at gmx.de> wrote:

> I think requiring more indentation won't make Markdown

> unduly harder to write but it will definitely make documents

> more readable.


Which as I understand it, is the goal of markdown in the first place.

-- 
----
Waylan Limberg
waylan at gmail.com