[Doc-SIG] References in the same line as the target text

[Ken Manheimer]

I'd like to weigh in requesting some kind of easy, direct inline reference
link.  I have particular preferences concerning the current discussion.  
Before i dive in though, i have to confess - as someone who hasn't tried
the non-inline style of references, i may not have the practical
experience which would enlighten me otherwise.  That said, the idea of
having to coordinate collections of references to distant collections of
URLs, either by inventing intermediate names or by ordering anonymous
correspondences, seems quite daunting.

> David Goodger (goodger@users.sourceforge.net) wrote:
> > The compromise syntax ("`reference text`__ __<http://example.com>") is
> > executed in two parts: a hyperlink reference identical to all other
> > references, and an "inline external target" which is new.  This fits
> > better with the rest of reStructuredText.
> > 
> > I also notice from a quick perusal of the code that the drop-in
> > replacement is implemented to recognize both parts at once; I don't
> > know if I agree with that.  Perhaps the inline external target should
> > not be restricted to appearing immediately after the reference only? I
> > think that allowing it to be anywhere would be a logical
> > extension/generalization of the idea.  Someone might choose a middle
> > ground and want to put targets between sentences instead of
> > interrupting the sentence flow.

This sounds like it would satisfy my craving, as long as the link binds 
to the nearest prior reference.

On Tue, 9 Jul 2002, Simon Budig wrote:

> Ah. The very first version I wrote indeed treated the second thing as
> an independant construct. It simply added an anonymous target when
> stumbling across __<uri>. However, It made the behaviour in the
> following case different than what I expected::
> 
>    Here is a reference__ and here is a `second one`__ __<target1>
>    and here is a third__
> 
>     __ target2
>     __ target3
> 
> target1 got assigned to reference__, target2 to `second one`__
> and target3 to third__
> 
> This was a different and a bit unexpected compared to my proposal.
> I wanted to have target1 assigned to `second one`__ and the
> regular anonymous targets fill the gaps as usual.

If i understand correctly, i would, um, *really* dislike having it work 
this way.  As i said above, i would unequivocally want __<target1> 
to bind to the nearest prior reference, `second one`.  The whole point of 
this construct, for me, would be to insulate the person creating the 
references from changes anywhere except the intervening space between the 
reference and the link.

It sounds like someone is suggesting a scheme where adding new references
at the beginning of the paragraph would change all of the anonymous
bindings throughout the paragraph, including the "inline" one.  I quote
"inline" because it *wouldn't* be inline, in that case, it would be
"interleaved", and in a loosely-coupled, surprising way.

Lemme know if i'm flailing at non-issues here - my tracking of the 
discussion is a bit spotty, though i am interested...

-- 
Ken Manheimer
klm@zope.com