[Doc-SIG] Re: Email Reader (was Re: reST block quotes)

[Beni Cherniavsky]

On 2002-12-17, David Goodger wrote:

> Beni Cherniavsky wrote:
> > I do think that some indentation demands could be relaxed, in
> > particular literal blocks should be allowed in column 0 (i.e. even
> > with negative indent!).
>
> How would you know when they end?
>
Forgot to say, until the first blank line.  Crude but can simplify typing
in many cases of short literal fragments...

> > The second goal opens a can of worms -- free text is too free to
> > parse automatically and needs corrections.
>
> I suspect that an actual application for an Email Reader must present
> itself before we can makethese decisions.IOW, what's the use case?
> I don't know that there's much value in supporting email in general,
> but I do know there would be much pain.
>
:)  Interesting that I didn't think of it before.  I have no good
application in my head :).  THe only one is taking interesting half-rST
emails I write and easily converting them to standalone valid rST
articles.  This could be done with a sloppy/bendable rST reader fed to an
rST writer, to normilize the text...

> > BTW, maybe a generic syntax diagram parser [generator] would be
> > useful to rapidly experiment with rST syntax variations.
>
> Sounds cool, and non-trivial :)
>
True.  I do have a scheme for only inline markup and bullets, which would
define the markup->xml mappings on the spot (one-time or scoped, with
attribute merging).  Something like::

<section :: ====heading==== `a href=`__ {|p|} {-ul-} {.ol.} - li>
==== Heading ====
{| A paragraph. |}
{-
   - List item with *emphasized* text.
     :: *em*
   - Another item
     containing `a link`_.
     :: `"http://target/url"`_
-}
</section>

This is largely inspired by rST's style of putting long markup data
outside of the text (e.g. link targets, substitions).  I already think I
know how to interpret this, I just need to find time and write it :).
Than I will have a very handy xml typing notation.

> > Getting automatic "indent/reduce conflict" reporting would be very
> > cool :-).
>
> Again, not following you.Not enough words!
>
That was suppossed to be a joking reference to Yacc's "shift/reduce
conflict" messages...

-- 
Beni Cherniavsky <cben@tx.technion.ac.il>