Re: [Docutils-users] option list wrongly detected?

[Martin B. <mar...@gm...>]

On 7/28/05, David Goodger <go...@py...> wrote:
> [Alan G Isaac]
> > Should the following be detected as an option list?
> > I would think not, but the first two items are.
>=20
> > Ordinary list:
> >
> > * -1  not an option
> > * -2  not an option
> > * -12 not an option
>=20
> Note that it's not *an* option list, it's a bullet list whose first two i=
tems
> contain option *lists*.  Here's a diagnostic tool:

Unrelated note, but those option_list document elements seem so weird
to me.  They represent such a specialized case of "document structure"
that I have to wonder why they appear within the document tree.  Call
me a sucker, but I've come to think of docutils as a truly generic
document processing system and some of the document nodes seem to me
quite out-of-place  (is it generic?  Is it not?  Knowing Dave's
no-nonsense style I guess in person his answer would be that
ultimately docutils is just defined by what docutils is :-) ).

Say, for example, could I get a special node for my book references? =20
If you see "G=F6del, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid", Douglas R.
Hofstadter, Ed. Basic Books, 1999, in a sentence, just like you've
just seen, shouldn't that be detected and have some kind of document
nodes for a book reference?  Referencing other written works is a more
common occurence in documents than documenting options lists IMO
(unless we're documenting man pages).  It seems to me that a document
node for litterature references belongs more in a document structure
than "program option lists" (which only make sense for computer geeks,
really).  (Incidentally, LaTeX contains special structures for
litterary references, and not for options lists.)

Oh, and how about bird feathers?  I have a large collection of bird
feathers, and I was wondering if I could get a special node for it,
say, when "~~~ peacock" appears on a line by itself, to have it create
a

  <bird_feather>
      peacock

node.  Can I get it please please please?  It kinda looks like a
feather too, those cute tilde characters (bird-feather characters,
really).  I'm sure everyone on this list cares a lot about bird
feathers and therefore you should all write special code in all your
writers to support them.

*wink*

cheers,