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

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

[David Abrahams]
>>> I can think of one way to beautify cases like this: introduce a kind
>>> of quotation which removes all spaces in what it surrounds as a
>>> postprocessing step.
>>> 
>>>     ''*re* ``Structured`` *Text''
>>> 
>>> This would be analogous to re.VERBOSE, if memory serves.

[David Goodger]
>> I'll add it to the character processing discussion in the To Do list,
>> but I doubt the feature is worth the cost.

[David Abrahams]
> Has any progress been made in this general area?

No.  I did add your idea to the To Do list, after this:

  - Escaped period or quote or dash as a disappearing catalyst to
    allow character-level inline markup?

(<http://docutils.sf.net/spec/notes.html#character-processing>)

I have strong reservations about the use of double-single-quotes as syntax,
since they may be used in unrelated ways: as ''double quotes''; as empty
strings as in text=''; or in ``TeX-style quotes'', although these have other
problems.

> I am finding myself
> with the need for much finer character processing control, like the
> ability to switch between ``code`` and normal text on character
> boundaries, super/subscripts, and bold-italic fonts.

How do you do super/subscripts in reStructuredText?

Could you show us specific examples where you'd like to do character-level
markup?

> It's very disappointing when I run up against limitations of ReST since
> it is otherwise such a pleasure.

reStructuredText is inherently limited due to its WYSIWYG nature.  To get
past these limitations, ugly workarounds have to be added.

Here's another idea: a "squeeze" directive used in a substitution::

    Here's how to make |reStructuredText| do character-level markup.

    .. |reStructuredText| squeeze::

       *re* ``Structured`` *Text*

"Squeeze" will remove whitespace from its contents.

-----------

Unfortunately for Docutils, I'm currenly trying to fulfill a low-level need
[*]_ (get a job), so I don't feel much impetus to fulfill higher-level needs
like writing open-source software.

.. [*] http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslow.html

-- David Goodger    http://starship.python.net/~goodger

Programmer/sysadmin for hire: http://starship.python.net/~goodger/cv