on the philosophical aspects of a specification

[John Fraser]

On Mar 5, 2008, at 2:40 PM, Waylan Limberg wrote:


> On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 1:46 PM, Vinay Augustine <vinay at case.edu>  

> wrote:

>>

>>> * no spaces - level 1

>>>    * 4 spaces - level 2

>>>      * 6 spaces - level 3

>>>  * 2 spaces - level 1.5 ???

>>

>> With the rule just proposed, wouldn't the last line simply be level  

>> 2?

>> I think this rule has the bonus of being obvious. If it doesn't do

>> what someone expects, they can look at what they wrote and say "oh,  

>> as

>> long as I indent more than the previous level, it will make a

>> sub-list." (of course, that could just be obvious since we're talking

>> about it).

>>

>

> To me that is not at all obvious. If it were to work as you propose,

> then the spec needs to specifically indicate that that is the expected

> behavior.

>

> Perhaps the reason this is *not* obvious to me is that I have a

> relatively strong background coding python. In python code, whitespace

> is significant. In fact, with few exceptions indentation is the only

> way to indicate nesting. The above nesting would **break** at compile

> time in python code. This is a "feature" and considered a "good thing"

> by most python users.


Maybe down the road it'll be worth building something like a  Markdown- 
lint, so we can warn users when they do wacky stuff like this.  But it  
absolutely shouldn't be part of Markdown itself; we just need to do  
the best we can with the input we've got.  And personally, I think  
having that last item be level 2 is pretty reasonable.  That's how I'd  
read it.