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

[Simon Budig]

Hi everybody.

I am currently poking around in the reStructuredText stuff of the
docutils. I like it. However, there is one thing that really bugs me a
bit.

It seems impossible to get a Reference (Link) without having to type
the name twice, which is a point where errors occur easily.
Also sometimes it is not feasible to have the link targets stand out
after a paragraph (where they interrupt the read flow) or at the end
of the text (hard to keep in sync in case of changes to the target text).

I would like to have some kind of inline link markup. I think a very
logical way would be something like the following reference to
Python_(http://www.python.org) or this Reference
to `The GIMP`_(http://www.gimp.org).

IMHO this is a logical and unintrusive extension to the Link Syntax
(If a ')' is in the Link itself it should be escaped, but maybe
somebody has a better idea for the delimiters).

I am currently not sure if it is feasible to have these Links added
to the target name list, because this might result in inconsistencies
like here_(http://foo.bar) and here_(http://bar.baz).

Or leave this problem to the user and allow also anonymous inline links
like here__(http://blubb.bla).

I think this addition would make it way easier to write structured text
with links. But it is perfectly possible that I missed something
obvious, since I am pretty new to this field. Please tell me what you
think...  :-)

Bye,
        Simon
-- 
      Simon.Budig@unix-ag.org       http://www.home.unix-ag.org/simon/