"Data blocks" syntax specification draft

[Chris Angelico]

On Mon, May 21, 2018 at 2:00 PM, Mikhail V <mikhailwas at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The second best way is to have a simple link that anyone can click on
>> to read your proposal. It's an external dependency, but you're
>> depending on a web browser and a basic internet connection, and
>> nothing more.
>>
>> Forcing us to download a PDF and then read it? Well, it's your
>> decision. My decision is that I cannot be bothered going to THAT much
>> effort to figure out what you're saying.
>
> THAT much effort to click two times instead of one - and get a
> formatted document instead of plain bw text. o-kaay..

Two clicks? No, that isn't how it happened for me. I clicked on it and
then I couldn't see the content. What second click am I supposed to do
that shows me the page?

>> As Ian says, reStructuredText is the only supported format [1] for
>> PEPs, so you may as well just start using it straight away. GitHub
>> automatically renders it if you use a ".rst" extension on your file,
>> so the rendered form would be visible on the web.
>
> Ok. How is about images? this proposal will require a lot of images
> - otherwise people who read it are forced to copy-paste snippets
> into their code editors to understand how it may look in reality.

If you're proposing syntax for Python, it's ultimately going to have
to be text. You cannot say "and every text editor has to render it
like this". If you can't demonstrate it using plain text, you have a
major problem on your hands.

>> I'm not going to read your proposal if you force me to go to heaps of
>> effort for it.
>
> heaps! oh come on, youre making up again.

No, I'm not making it up. Just because the PDF works perfectly for
you, you assume that it'll work perfectly for everyone. That is not
the case, and that isn't my problem - it's your problem.

Suppose someone posted a Microsoft Word document, claiming that
Internet Explorer will display it perfectly. Would you accept that,
and say that we should all switch to IE? Would you moan that it's so
easy, and we're just complainers for not wanting to play your games?
Or would we just drop the thread and ignore you thereafter?

I'm not going to debate this with you. If you want people to read your
content, you need to make it accessible; it's much easier for me to
just assume that a proposal that requires a PDF and a bunch of images
simply isn't worth reading.

ChrisA