Link syntax (was: definition lists?)

[Jason Blevins]

Thomas Nichols wrote:

> Tangentially, I notice that this post by Waylan uses a link syntax which

> doesn't seem to be defined by

> <http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#link> but seems to

> work in some implementations at <http://babelmark.bobtfish.net/> - that is,

> 

> from the git repo [1]

> instead of

> from the git repo [1][]

> or

> from the [git repo] [1].

> 

> The link definition is then

> 

> [1]: http://gitorious.org/projects/python-markdown/repos/mainline

 
This was introduced in Markdown.pl 1.0.2b2.


> Which of the outputs generated at

>  <http://babelmark.bobtfish.net/?markdown=checkout+from+the+git+repo+[1]%0D%0Aat+commit+e968bbf+(on+Nov+6)%2C%0D%0A%0D%0A[1]%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fgitorious.org%2Fprojects%2Fpython-markdown%2Frepos%2Fmainline&src=1&dest=2>

> (also available at <http://tinyurl.com/6hq7ut> in case the full URI gets

> mashed) is considered 'expected'?


On Babelmark Markdown.pl 1.0.2b8 honors this implicit reference syntax but
1.0.1 doesn't.  I was aware of this syntax so my expected output is that
of the beta version.  I haven't used it myself though because I've often
wondered how 'standard' it is.  It looks like the majority of implementations
do support it though.


> IIUC, what I'll refer to "Waylan's syntax" makes any text enclosed in

> square brackets into a candidate for a link; the parser then searches

> for a matching link definition. I'm undecided whether the simplicity of

> this syntax offsets the risk of breaking existing documents. A link will

> only be generated if a matching link definition is found, IIUC, so

> perhaps this risk is acceptably low?

>

> Please point me to a previous discussion if available, I couldn't find

> one in the archives.


I couldn't find any discussion of it on the list, but here's the
changelog entry:

1.0.2b2 - 20 Mar 2005

    +   Experimental support for [this] as a synonym for [this][].
        (Note to self: No test yet for this.)
        Be sure to test, e.g.: [permutations of this sort of [thing][].]

Jason 

-- 
Jason Blevins
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Economics, Duke University
http://jblevins.org/