[Docutils-users] StructuredText's ordered list

[Mark M. <ma...@mc...>]

Forgive me if this is a FAQ.

In StructuredText, you can do:

  1.  a

  1.  b

  1.  c

and you'll get an ordered list (<ol><li>a</li><li>b</li><li>c</li>).  The
advantage of this approach is that I don't need to manage the numbers (e.g.,
if I move c between a and b, I don't have to "renumber" them).

With reStructuredText, OTOH, the above generates three ordered lists:

  <ol>
    <li>a</li>
  </ol>
  <ol>
    <li>b</li>
  </ol>
  <ol>
    <li>c</li>
  </ol>

There's probably a good reason for this.  I realize this is part of the
specification:


http://docutils.sourceforge.net/spec/rst/reStructuredText.html#enumerated-li
sts

Any insight on why the implicit sequence approach is avoided (which seems
usable at least in isolation) is greatly appreciated.

Perhaps the answer is simply:

  Explicit is better than implicit.

Thanks,

// mark

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