[Doc-SIG] using the same delimiter on the left and right..

[Ken Manheimer]

Tibs wrote:

> Guido van Rossum wrote (in response to Edward Loper):
> > > Well.. I'm not sure whether we'd want to do that or not.. We
> > > may be happy with just using '1.' and assuming that no one will
> > > start a line with a number that ends a sentence..
> >
> > That was ST's the original sin.
> 
> Is it a sin? I don't believe that you will get a markup system
> (*whatever* its conventions) that doesn't have *some* nooks and crannies
> where the user may not type. And if we're worried about (important, yes)

This may have to do with an agregious wart in STclassic - the
implementation is ridiculously too loose about what it accepts for the
ordered list cue.  It does *not* constrain to digits, nor to single
characters!  Here are two examples that are translated into ordered list
elements::

  Huh.  This isn't *supposed* to be an ordered list element!

  Mr. Ken Manheimer would proudly like to present another vapid example.

I can understand how unpleasant little bugs like this would inspire
loathing and fear in the hearts of STclassic users.  You actually have
to change your sentence structure to work around it!

(Perhaps i should have spent more time fixing STclassic bugs when i
was working on WikiForNow (some revisions of ZWiki, which uses
STclassic).  However, time was extremely limited, and STNG is in the
wings, so effort expended on STclassic seemed unworthwhile.  *When*
STNG is coming out of the wings is another story, though - with all
the important things pending for Zope and for zope.org, it hasn't been
high enough priority - the devil's bargain, etc.  Sigh.)

Still, some may just not consider punctuation-style cues for markup to be
acceptable.  That would be a shame - i think for situations like
docstrings and brief, day-to-day content, such limited-scope, dirt-simple
markup is the right way to go, if implemented well...

Ken
klm@digicool.com