[pmwiki-users] Modified (:markup:)

[Neil Herber]

At 2005-03-19  10:31 PM -0600, Patrick R. Michaud is rumored to have said:
>On Sat, Mar 19, 2005 at 11:14:48PM -0500, Neil Herber wrote:
> > What if you allowed the author to define delimiter characters within the
> > (:markup:) directive, like this:
> >
> > (:markup >>>:)
> >  [= blah blah
> > more
> > etc =] >>>
>
>This works, but somehow it doesn't feel as clean as
>(:markup:)...(:markupend:), and it introduces "yet another" ad-hoc
>mechanism for enclosing a block of markup.  I guess I'm hoping for
>some means of allowing (:markup:)...(:markupend:), while not completely
>breaking sites that have used (:markup:) [=...=].
>
>OTOH, allowing an arbitrary sequence to serve as the end marker does
>have its uses, so I'm not tossing it out either.  I guess I'm looking
>to be able to retain *some* semblance of order and consistency in the
>markup.

A few more possibilities:

1. Retain the current version but add (:markup2:)...(:markup2end:)

2. Allow the delimiters to be any string surrounded by blanks following the 
(:markup:) directive, as in:

         (:markup:) 123 now I can mark up anything that doesn't include 123 
reversed,
                         and by default, the  [=...=] delimiters will work! 321

3. Create a special case of the current markup that uses  [==...==]  as the 
delimiters to be able to enclose   [=...=]

4. Similar to the quoting quotes problem, double the delimiters when they 
enclose themselves or render doubled enclosed delimiters as singles. I am 
not sure which of these is clearer - programmers would go for doubling the 
inner set, but normal humans would probably understand doubling the outer 
set. In practice this would look like this:

         (:markup:) [=[= now I can mark up anything that doesn't include 
doubled [= or =].
                         How this renders is not obvious! =] =]

         (:markup:) [= now I can mark up anything that doesn't include 
doubled [=[= or =]=].
                         How this renders is not obvious! =]

I still far prefer the very readable (:markup:)...(:markupend:) version and 
would vote to turf the   [=...=] delimiters.


Neil

Neil Herber
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