Re: [Docutils-users] Option list not implemented according to documentation

[Guenter M. <mi...@us...>]

Hej Pierre,

On 2021-10-11, Pierre Ossman wrote in gmane.text.docutils.user:
> Unfortunately there is a bug/deviation in the docutils implementation of 
> option lists compared to how they are described. This causes it to 
> misparse some definition lists as option lists instead.

> E.g. this:

> 	--something-that-looks-like-an-option
> 		But it really isn't! We just like dashes!

> Will result in an option list in the parsed doctree. But according to 
> the documentation an option list requires two or more spaces after the 
> option. 

Your example resembles example 7 in
https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html#option-lists

    --an-even-longer-option
           The description can also start on the next line.

which also states the reasoning behind this behaviour.

What is missing, is a caveat in the specification of definition lists: the
term may not start with a hyphen. This is now added in the repository.


Thank you for reporting,

Günter