spaces and newlines before list markers (was: evolving the spec)

[Aristotle Pagaltzis]

* Yuri Takhteyev <qaramazov at gmail.com> [2008-03-01 00:20]:

> My suggestion would be to actually restrict the range of what

> is turned into ordered lists, either by requiring that ordered

> lists start with "1.", or that they have at least two items

> with consecutive numbers, or even to require both.


Not both, but lists not starting at 1. having to have more than
one item is a nice idea for solving the problem.


> I frankly don't see a point in allowing the user to number

> their list items starting with an arbitrary number if those the

> list will start with "1." when displayed to the viewer anyway.


This is actually my second biggest complaint with Markdown. As I
understand, John was originally going to allow numbered lists to
start at numbers other than 1, but then discovered that the HTML4
WG labelled the `start` attribute of lists deprecated, so he
removed this feature.

I find the WG’s decision utterly baffling and wrong-headed. *How
on Earth* is that information presentational?!

So while I don’t disagree with the basic desire to output valid
HTML, I think John’s decision in this one case was mistaken. IMO,
in this one case Markdown should do what is sensible, validation
be damned.

Regards,
-- 
Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/>