Markdown-Discuss Digest, Vol 148, Issue 3

Alice Williams awilliams at machinezone.com
Thu Jul 9 16:24:27 EDT 2015


Hi Everyone, thanks for the tips about anchor links. We discovered another
issue that was not letting the anchor links work properly.

The anchor links do work with Fireball Markdown, our issue was related to
admin login vs. customer login.

Sorry for the inconvenience .


On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at 12:29 PM, <markdown-discuss-request at six.pairlist.net>
wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. re: does fireball markdown support anchor links? (bowerbird)
>    2. Re: does fireball markdown support anchor links? (Michel Fortin)
>    3. How to create anchors in Fireball version of Markdown?(gitlab
>       version links do not work) (Alice Williams)
>    4. Re: How to create anchors in Fireball version of
>       Markdown?(gitlab version links do not work) (Fletcher T. Penney)
>    5. Re: does fireball markdown support anchor links?
>       (Aristotle Pagaltzis)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2015 04:39:45 -0400
> From: bowerbird <bowerbird at aol.com>
> To: markdown-discuss at six.pairlist.net, bowerbird at aol.com
> Subject: re: does fireball markdown support anchor links?
> Message-ID: <14e71f87563-70b0-69c4 at webprd-a52.mail.aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> david said:
> >   Compare the manually specified
> >   https://github.com/plaid/sanctuary#either
> >   to the auto-generated
> >
> https://github.com/plaid/sanctuary#either--a---c---b---c---either-a-b---c
>
> ok, first of all, if you manually specified this anchor:
> >   https://github.com/plaid/sanctuary#either
> no way ever would i expect it to go to that location.
>
> especially since this link:
> >   https://github.com/plaid/sanctuary#Either
> goes to another location. (told you about case glitches.)
>
> nope, i would expect your manually-specified link to
> go to the location where this link actually goes:
> >   https://github.com/plaid/sanctuary#either-type
>
> (ironically, that header actually has a capital letter,
> but the anchor is nonetheless in all-lowercase. ha.)
>
> no, the thing about "manually specified" anchors
> is that they will show all kinds of idiosyncrasies.
> so not only are they work to create, but they are
> also inconsistent, thus undependable, meaning
> you have to look at each one to see what it is, so
> they have almost _no_ redeeming qualities at all.
>
> furthermore, the github methodology must be
> doing some kind of javascript-based search
> -- which is not a bad idea, as i suggested here:
>
> >
> https://medium.com/the-bower/lets-please-use-hashtag-terms-to-create-_arbitrary_-deep-links-f9185d5da2f0
>
> (grok that deep-link! hyphens _and_ underbars!
> and random crap at the end just to confuse you.)
>
> except whatever github is doing is implemented
> very strangely, so is certainly not what i would do.
>
> however...
>
> ***
>
> alan said:
> >   If I were to pick a preferred format for auto-generated IDs,
> >   it would have to be hyphens. Separating words is desirable
> >   as it is more readable. And underscores, though not a terrible option,
> >   can be obscured by underlines when the entire URL is presented to a
> user.
>
> i disagree with several of those points.
>
> but, hey, our own personal opinions don't mean jack.
>
> i would gladly accept _any_ method, even if distasteful,
> as long as everyone agreed that that's what we're doing.
>
> so what would make a difference is if all the flavors
> would converge on a mutual-agreed-upon method.
>
> but...
>
> >   Of course, I've been on this list too long to expect
> >   implementations to actually converge on much of anything.
>
> right, that's never gonna happen, i think we all know that.
>
> so, then, what we need is to poll a million users or so, and
> see which of the possible solutions they would most prefer,
> and then let that vote guide us. but that won't happen either.
>
> so the guiding principle is this:
>
> if it _is_ broke, but you know you can't fix it,
> don't waste time and energy by even trying.
> don't even discuss it. pretend it doesn't exist.
> (that's something all the flavor-makers can do!)
>
> i would suggest we have reached this point.
> thank you for your question, original-poster...
>
> -bowerbird
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2015 10:15:50 -0400
> From: Michel Fortin <michel.fortin at michelf.ca>
> To: "Discussion related to Markdown."
>         <markdown-discuss at six.pairlist.net>
> Subject: Re: does fireball markdown support anchor links?
> Message-ID: <ABD97F73-1F3A-4D33-A42F-220A3CC01FAB at michelf.ca>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Le 2015-07-09 ? 0:30, Alan Hogan <contact at alanhogan.com> a ?crit :
> > Furthermore, auto-gen'd headers *will* break when the text of the header
> is changed, which can be done for any number of innocuous reasons when we
> would like the link to be preserved. (Cool URIs don?t change, right?)
> >
> > For that reason, I have always been a fan of the ID specification syntax
> that pandoc, PHP Markdown Extra, maruku, kramdown, and a few others support:
> >
> >       ## This is a header         {#a-header}
> >
> > which compiles to:
> >
> >       <h2 id="a-header">This is a header</h2>
> >
> > Look at that! Cleaner Markdown *and* cleaner output than inserting your
> own <a> tag. And better, more future-proof section IDs than the
> auto-generated variety.
> >
> > Sadly, I never get to use it, due to the regrettable and totally
> predictable fact that so many Markdown converters ignore it.
> >
> > Not to pick on showdown, but look at its output:
> > <h2 id="thisisaheaderaheader">This is a header {#a-header}</h2>
>
> Yeah, this is sad.
>
> I'll just point out that PHP Markdown Extra does support automatic
> generation of headers id as long as you provide it with a proper function
> to generate the id from the content of the header. For instance, you can
> configure the parser like this:
>
>         $parser->header_id_func = function ($text) {
>             return preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9]/', '-', strtolower($text));
>         };
>
> I'm not providing this function out of the box for a few reasons: 1. any
> specific algorithm to generate the id to is going to make some people
> complain about non-compatibility with another implementation, and 2. it's
> quite hard to come with something that'll work well with non-english text.
>
> Just try it with accented characters and non-latin scripts and appreciate
> the nonsense.
> http://johnmacfarlane.net/babelmark2/?normalize=1&text=%23+English%0A%0A%23+Fran?ais%0A%0A%23+Espa?ol%0A%0A%23+?e?tina%0A%0A%23+???????%0A%0A%23+??%0A%0A%23+??%0A%0A%23+???????????%E2%80%8E%E2%80%8E%0A%0A%23+???
> ??
>
> Honestly, I find the {#a-header} approach better.
>
> --
> Michel Fortin
> michel.fortin at michelf.ca
> https://michelf.ca
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2015 11:56:40 -0700
> From: Alice Williams <awilliams at machinezone.com>
> To: markdown-discuss at six.pairlist.net
> Subject: How to create anchors in Fireball version of Markdown?(gitlab
>         version links do not work)
> Message-ID:
>         <CAFhkAKOBQEfR=
> fuwF3YHOOTKc7_xQVjYaXKQhw+i9bdj6NQAwA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hi all,
>
> Just curious if anyone knows how to get anchor links to work with Fireball
> version of Markdown. (The Gitlab standard Markdown achieves anchor links
> like this (but Fireball version does not support this format):
>
> [link text](#anchor)
>
> This anchor link does not work with Fireball version.
>
> Does anyone know how to create Fireball Markdown anchors?
>
> Thanks,
> Alice
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 09 Jul 2015 15:16:32 -0400
> From: "Fletcher T. Penney" <fletcher at fletcherpenney.net>
> To: "Discussion related to Markdown."
>         <markdown-discuss at six.pairlist.net>
> Subject: Re: How to create anchors in Fireball version of
>         Markdown?(gitlab version links do not work)
> Message-ID: <559EC890.4030903 at fletcherpenney.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
>
> I think you need to be more precise in your question.  I tried to flesh
> it out in my prior response, but perhaps I failed.
>
> The link you describe:
>
>         [link text](#anchor)
>
> works just fine in any version of Markdown.  It's just a regular link.
>
> I suspect the problem you are having, as per my other message, is that
> you need something for the link to "target."  If an anchor named
> "#anchor" doesn't exist, that's a separate problem.
>
>
> The various replies to your earlier message all suggested ways of
> creating the necessary anchor that would work.
>
> If those replies did not answer your question, then perhaps you could
> more precisely specify the HTML output you are getting and the HTML
> output you are expecting.
>
>
> Fletcher
>
>
>
> On 7/9/15 2:56 PM, Alice Williams wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Just curious if anyone knows how to get anchor links to work with
> > Fireball version of Markdown. (The Gitlab standard Markdown achieves
> > anchor links like this (but Fireball version does not support this
> format):
> >
> > [link text](#anchor)
> >
> > This anchor link does not work with Fireball version.
> >
> > Does anyone know how to create Fireball Markdown anchors?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Alice
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Markdown-Discuss mailing list
> > Markdown-Discuss at six.pairlist.net
> > https://pairlist6.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/markdown-discuss
> >
>
> --
> Fletcher T. Penney
> fletcher at fletcherpenney.net
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2015 21:29:37 +0200
> From: Aristotle Pagaltzis <pagaltzis at gmx.de>
> To: markdown-discuss at six.pairlist.net
> Subject: Re: does fireball markdown support anchor links?
> Message-ID: <20150709192937.GA97999 at plasmasturm.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> > the thing about "manually specified" anchors is that they will show
> > all kinds of idiosyncrasies. so not only are they work to create, but
> > they are also inconsistent, thus undependable, meaning you have to
> > look at each one to see what it is, so they have almost _no_ redeeming
> > qualities at all.
>
> Yeah, totally agreed.
>
> There are so many advantages to the fact that the anchor is dependably
> derived from the text of the heading? well, between all the sites that
> use the same Markdown processor configured in the same way? anyway, that
> complete consistency is very useful.
>
> It means that if you want to link to the heading, then all you have to
> do is copy-paste the text of the heading and then manually edit it into
> the format that the Markdown processor uses. You don?t need to look up
> the anchor to copy-paste it, which would just be dumb.
>
> It?s also a huge help if you want to know where a link goes ? you don?t
> even need to click the link (who does that anyway?!), you just scroll
> through the document from top to bottom while eyeballing the headers and
> hey presto: you know *exactly* where it leads.
>
> Furthermore, in the post-Web?2.0 era URIs are only cool if they could
> potentially break before you notice that they are trending. So the fact
> that links will break if you edit the text of a heading means derived
> anchors are make cool URIs. Really cool URIs sometimes.
>
> So it?s easy to show conclusively that derived anchors are perfect in
> every way and the absolute idiosyncrasy of manually specified anchors
> results in no redeeming qualities for them at all.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> End of Markdown-Discuss Digest, Vol 148, Issue 3
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