Re: [Docutils-users] Re: Problem (?) with inline literals

[David G. <go...@py...>]

[David Goodger]
>> So I've checked it in.  Available now from CVS or in 20 minutes from
>> the snapshot.

[David Abrahams]
> Rock me, Amadeus.

Never thought I'd hear that again.  Now I kinda wish I hadn't.

>> I don't see a good way to allow for arbitrary text *before* inline
>> markup though.  Is there a need?  We can't use a simple backslash,
>> since that says "the following is *not* markup".
> 
> But... inline markup doesn't happen within markup does it?

Inline markup doesn't nest.  Is that what you mean?

> the simple backslash outside of markup could mean "begin markup" if it
> precedes "``".
> 
> 'course I'm probably missing something.

The main reason for backslash-escapes to exist is to *prevent* markup
recognition when it's not wanted::

    Various forms of \*ML abound.

The backslash "escapes" the normal meaning of whatever follows it.  In this
case::

    Use brackets for Python ``list``\s

we've extended the meaning of the backslash to escape the normal "text"
meaning of the "s" to make it into a word-boundary.  To do the same thing
before the inline markup, I can only think of introducing a "disappearing
escape sequence", like this:

    *re*\'``Structured``\'*Text*
    (italic "re" + monospaced "Structured" + italic "Text")

That's awfully ugly though.

-- 
David Goodger  <go...@py...>  Open-source projects:
  - Python Docutils: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/
    (includes reStructuredText: http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html)
  - The Go Tools Project: http://gotools.sourceforge.net/