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

[David A. <da...@bo...>]

David Goodger <go...@py...> writes:

> David Abrahams wrote:
>> I'm not wedded to the syntax. ``` could work.
>
> That would be ambiguous.  Currently, to mark up a backquote as an inline
> literal, you'd use::
>
>     `````
>
> That wouldn't be possible if we adopted ``` as "squeezing" markup.
>
>>> Could you show us specific examples where you'd like to do character-level
>>> markup?
>> 
>> In a pseudocode example,
>> 
>>   F(a1, a2,... aN)
>> 
>> you might want most of the 'a's to be represented as ``code`` while
>> the numbers and the 'N' are represented in an italic variable-width
>> font (subscripted).
>
> Thanks; good example.
>
>> I think it might be enough to add a generalized escape which allows
>> arbitrary ugliness when it's absolutely needed.  That would still
>> allow the rest of our ReST to stay pretty.
>
> There is already such a generalized (although verbose) mechanism for inline
> markup: interpreted text with roles.  They could be done like this::
>
>     subscript: `1`:sub: or :sub:`1`
>     superscript: `2`:sup: or :sup:`2`

Nice!

> There's still the problem of character-level markup though: whitespace is
> required.
>
> One of the tricks listed in the To Do list is to use an escaped character:
>
>     Escaped period or quote or dash as a disappearing catalyst to
>     allow character-level inline markup?
>
> Escaped dash isn't a good choice (may be useful as a soft hyphen).  Periods
> are used as markup (explicit markup start, ".. "), so might legitimately be
> escaped without the intention of the period "disappearing".  That leaves the
> quote.  The idea was that this could be used as markup::
>
>     F(``a``\'`1`:sub:, ``a``\'`2`:sub:, ... ``a``\'`N`:sub:)
>
> Exceedingly ugly, don't you think?

Yes, but serviceable.  Did we discuss the idea that escaped
whitespace disappears?

    F(``a``\ `1`:sub:, ``a``\ `2`:sub:, ... ``a``\ `N`:sub:)

> But combining this idea with setting up a "squeeze environment", I came up
> with this::
>
>     F(\"``a`` `1`:sub:\", \"``a`` `2`:sub:\", ... \"``a`` `N`:sub:\")
>
> Here, the escaped-double-quote sequence acts as "squeeze
> delimiters".  

Icky (IMO).

> Add in escaped spaces as non-breaking spaces, and the above could be
> condensed to::
>
>     \"F(``a`` `1`:sub:,\ ``a`` `2`:sub:,\ ...\ ``a`` `N`:sub:)\"
>
> Also ugly, but less obtrusively so (maybe).  

Yes.  It's unfortunate that you really want '\ ' for a &nbsp;, since
the need for breaking non-space comes up much more often in my work.

> It's ugly, but specialized and
> obscure enough that it may not matter.  Another example::
>
>     \"*re* ``Structured`` *Text*\"
>
>>> 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.
>> 
>> The problem is that it squeezes a whole paragraph.
>
> Only the "*re* ``Structured`` *Text*" paragraph, which is inserted into the
> preceding paragraph by the substitution mechanism.  Yes, this example is a
> bit of a kludge.

Ah!  I missed the substitution mechanism.

>> Unless... maybe we could have a category of directive which embeds
>> a paragraph in the surrounding ones.
>
> Not sure what you mean.  A directive can emit a paragraph; all directives
> used in substitutions have to.

I think I just meant "substitution" ;-)

> In any case, this would be a major syntax addition that needs to be
> well thought out.

There's the rub, eh?

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com