on the philosophical aspects of a specification

[Michel Fortin]

Le 2008-03-04 à 13:15, david parsons a écrit :


>   But what's the intent of ***hello*, sailor**   ?

>

>   Should it produce

>    1. <strong><em>hello</em>, sailor</strong>

>    2. <strong>*hello*, sailor</strong>

>    3. *<strong>hello*, sailor</strong>

>    4. ***hello<em>, sailor<strong>

>    5. ***hello*, sailor**

>    6. <em><strong>hello</strong></em><strong>, sailor</strong>

>    7. <em><strong>hello</em>, sailor</strong> (which makes baby XML  

> cry) ?


I'd say 1:

     <strong><em>hello</em>, sailor</strong>

This is the saner well-formed markup which can reflect the intent.  
This is what PHP Markdown is designed to produce, and it's part of the  
test suite in MDTest. 6 is probably acceptable too.

A better question is what to do with this:

     *hello **dear* boy**


>   How about **Hello, sailor ?

>

>   Is it <strong>Hello, sailor, **Hello, sailor, or <em></em>Hello,  

> sailor?


Empty emphasis doesn't make sense, it shouldn't be allowed. The first  
interpretation is correct.


Michel Fortin
michel.fortin at michelf.com
http://michelf.com/