[Doc-SIG] Formalizing StructuredText (yeh!)

[Edward D. Loper]

Tibs said:
> Secondly, I'll add a link from the next "status" document for docutils -
> do you prefer to be "Edward Loper" or "Edward D. Loper"?

Thanks.  Let's call me Edward Loper for now.  I also have a page
at:
    http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~edloper/pydoc

that will contain pointers to all my essays/work on python documentation
and StructuredText.

> - I've added a reference to STminus at the end of the page. It might be
> an idea to get a Zope Wiki account (if you don't already have one) and
> add a reference somewhere further up the hierarchy as well - I don't
> know if Jim Fulton and co. have the time or inclination to watch the
> Doc-SIG...

I'll try to get an account sometime.  I've never used Zope before,
but it doesn't look that difficult to find out.  Is there someone I need
to talk to to get an account, or do I just register on some web page
somewhere?

If Jim (and co.) don't read Doc-SIG, should I send email to someone at
STNG telling them what I'm working on?  If so, who?

> Fourthly, I haven't had time to read the whole STminus document (heh, I
> only just saw your email!), but I did note the large red box halfway
> down the actual STminus definition page. Just above it you say::
> 
>       Note that the empty literal ('') is a valid literal.
> 
> I have a sneaky feeling that this is not so in the current version of
> STpy (it *may* have been earlier - it's something I'm ambivalent about,
> since I can't see much *use* for an empty literal string). 

I have a suscicion that STminus's current definition does *not*
actually provide a subset of the intersection of STNG and STpy..  
This should hopefully become more clear once I make lots of
test cases, and can run them through the parsers for all three
languages (although, just because one parses something one way,
doesn't mean that that's the intended behavior, but..)

> Oh - one last point - please, please, please put <p> at the start of
> paragraphs - HTML really does mandate it, despite the fact that IE seems
> not to care (I've come across browsers in the past that *did* treat the
> absence of <p> as meaning pure whitespace, causing all "paragraphs" to
> run together...). Personally, I recommend HTML Tidy as a tool for
> checking/reformatting HTML - not that I always do what it *says*, but at
> least I then know when I'm being naughty...

Fixed.  Sorry about that; over time, I've come to respect HTML so 
little that I don't bother to use tags properly sometimes. :)

> Damn, now I'm going to have to learn EBNF. Hard when I've got my
> stupid-hat on - it took me quite a while to realise why "'" was called
> APOS...

I added text descriptions for all the terminal productions. :)  In
my references, I list the following page on EBNF:

http://www.augustana.ab.ca/~mohrj/courses/2000.fall/csc370/lecture_notes/ebnf.h
tml

However, I'm *sure* that there are better pages out there that 
describe EBNF; if someone knows of a good one, tell me, and I'll
add it to my references.


> I do like the assumption of a dialogue between STNG and STpy - although
> at the moment you're it! (mind you, that's a damn good start, so far as
> I'm concerned).

I'm hoping the people working on STNG will like the idea too. :)

> I'll try to go through the text and look for "intentional differences"
> that I know about.

Thanks.

> (oh - the link [5] at the bottom of the intro page, to
>       http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~edloper/pydoc/ebnfla_proof.html
> gives a Not Found error)

Oops, forgot to copy that page over.  Fixed now.

-Edward