[Doc-SIG] Lazy paragraph identation

[David Goodger]

One point I hadn't made explicitly was: if lazy paragraph indentation on
list items is enabled, each list item may contain only one paragraph. Second
elements of any kind (including sublists) are not possible without
significantly reworking other aspects of the markup.

For example, here's a list in 'strict' reStructuredText::

    - List 1, 
      item 1, 
      para 1.

      Item 1,
      para 2.

    - List 1,
      item 2,
      para 1.

      Item 2,
      para 2.

      * Sublist A
        of item 2.

In with lazy indentation, that structure is impossible to represent::

    - List 1, 
    item 1, 
    para 1.

    Item 1,
    para 2.

    - List 1,
    item 2,
    para 1.

      Item 2,
      para 2.

      * Sublist A
      of item 2.

If we don't indent, like 'Item 1, para 2', we get a one-item list, followed
by a paragraph, followed by a second, separate list. If we do indent, like
'Item 2, para 2', we have a block quote containing a paragraph followed by a
list. But lazy indenters are loathe to indent, so the point is moot.

Lazy indentation would only be useful for the simplest of documents: flat,
limited to one paragraph per list item, no nested lists possible. This
seriously limits the expressive power of the markup. Is the lazy variant
sufficiently powerful to be useful to anyone?

If anyone can come up with or refer to a self-consistent scheme to combine
lazy indentation with powerful expressivity, please do chime in.

-- 
David Goodger    dgoodger@bigfoot.com    Open-source projects:
 - Python Docstring Processing System: http://docstring.sf.net
 - reStructuredText: http://structuredtext.sf.net
 - The Go Tools Project: http://gotools.sf.net