[pmwiki-users] leading spaces switch for 2.2.0 (somewhat important)

Ben Wilson dausha at gmail.com
Mon Mar 26 09:48:11 CDT 2007


On 3/25/07, Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com> wrote:

[snip]

> So, I don't know what number of leading spaces would be an appropriate
> default.  I'd lean to four, but I don't know that setting it at four
> will significantly reduce the scope of the problem.  (And it may be
> that a compromise is ultimately more confusing than either extreme.)
>
> Still, it can always be done as a configuration variable, so that
> setting $EnableWSPre to a number such as 1, 4, or 8 results in requiring
> that number of leading spaces to treat lines as preformatted text.

This lowers consistency with the markup, which could confuse the same
authors who would be confused by one leading whitespace. Four spaces
is used by Markdown, FWIW; and why I voted +1 on the option of 4 or 8
spaces. I think eight spaces is too many, because somebody will have
to count, and four seems easier to count on (at least I don't have to
use the other hand when I reach the dreaded five barrier). When
cut/pasting from web sites, a UL/OL item is four white spaces,
followed by * or #; at least when I've done so using Firefox.

I voted +2 on using specific markup (e.g. [@ @]) because that markup
falls clearly in the intent of the author: it is pretty rare to
encounter that markup in normally readable text. The root issue here
is whether a neophyte or non-tech savvy author will encounter a markup
condition which is accidental and confuses him as to the cause. By
having a clear markup (e.g. [@ @]), then we can be fairly certain a
neophyte author won't accidentally trigger a <pre> block. I guess this
idea seems to work for me because there is a clear, visual cue
triggering the block.

Along with [@ @] indicating <pre></pre>, then [@@ @@] could indicate
<pre><code></code></pre>. This seems to work for me as the latter is
"a little more" than the former.

FWIW, the leading space = <pre> is my least favorite markup rule. :-/

-- 
Ben Wilson
"Words are the only thing which will last forever" Churchill



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