[Doc-SIG] Reworking Explicit Markup
Tony J Ibbs (Tibs)
tony@lsl.co.uk
Fri, 19 Oct 2001 10:28:15 +0100
David doing his good work as normal, so not much to say (erm, when did
that stop me?)
The interesting bit of this email is at `the end`_ - in summary, I'm +1
for David's proposed syntax, number 5 (sorry, they've been replaying
Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy on the radio recently over her, and I
wouldn't want to keep anyone in needless suspense).
David noted that he used "#" in anonymous footnotes because of the
connotation of "number" - hah, I'm on the wrong continent again, I
hadn't quite gotten that (pronouncing it "hash" probably doesn't help).
OK, for a sizable constituency it will have that direct connotation, I
can understand that.
I'm less sanguine than he about the ease of remembering what can't go at
the beginning of a comment, although I suppose "magic" allows::
.. Remember: http://www.python.org/ is a really neat site.
to be a comment because of the trailing text? But not a great worry -
comments are secondary, and we already had this discussion.
Trivial note: there's an alternative 6 which follows on immediately (as
does alternative 5) from a comment in alternative 1:
> 1. Original syntax::
> Disadvantages:
> - Anonymous target markup is awkward: ".. __:".
so the "obvious" thing to do is drop the "__", giving ".. :".
Unfortunately, this has no great advantage, whilst losing the "_" link
connotation, and it *looks* odd (I suspect Alan's users would prefer
something without a space embedded in the middle!).
.. _the end:
> 5. David Goodger's proposed syntax: Perhaps going back to one of
> Alan's earlier suggestions might be the best solution. How about
> simply adding "__ " as a synonym for ".. __: "? These would become
> equivalent::
>
> .. __: http://somewhere
>
> __ http://somewhere
>
> Would that be sufficient, with no other syntax changes?
So one might type::
Useful languages for this purpose include Tcl__,
Python_, Perl__ and Sather__ - but irrespective
of practicality, Python_ will always be my first
love.
__ http://www.sometcl.resource/
.. _python: http://www.python.org/
__ http://www.perl.org/
__ http://www.sather.org/
Yes, I could see that working "visually". Decent error messages when one
types "__" instead of "_" (and vice versa) will help, but I trust us (!)
to do that. Could one could also do::
Useful languages for this purpose include Tcl__,
Python__, Perl__ and Sather__ - but irrespective
of practicality, Python_ will always be my first
love.
__ http://www.sometcl.resource/
.. _python:
__ http://www.python.org/
__ http://www.perl.org/
__ http://www.sather.org/
as an alternative?
Anyway, consider me a +1 on this idea, at least for the moment.
Tibs
--
Tony J Ibbs (Tibs) http://www.tibsnjoan.co.uk/
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