[Python-markdown-discuss] Proposed changes to linebreaks

[Waylan L. <wa...@gm...>]

I've been working on a few different bugs related to line breaks. In
doing so, I've found some questionable side effects of the current
implementation that do not always make sense or correspond with perl
or php variations. I realize that just because markdown.pl or php do
something a certain way, doesn't mean we should, but I think it makes
sense here.

So my question is, would anyone have any objection to the following changes?

(1) Currently, in python two spaces are converted to a linebreak at
the end of a *header*. Seeing headers are always one line, what value
does this add? Neither php nor perl support this. Would anyone miss
this if I removed it? (It would make an inlinePattern for linebreaks
**much** easier.)

(2) I noticed that the two spaces are always preserved in output ("
<br />\n"). Is this necessary? For example (spaces replaced with +s
for clarity):

    Line with a break.++

currently becomes:

    Line with a break.++<br />

instead of:

    Line with a break.<br />

IMO this doesn't really matter one way or the other, but I'm getting
test failures over this and am inclined to strip the extra whitepsace
from the tests. Any thoughts?

(1). Currently a blank line composed of at least two spaces becomes a
line break "<br />". This is not inline with either perl or php and
can have some interesting side effects. Note this example from
"tests/misc/some-tests.txt" (I've replaced the indentation with '+'s
for clarity):

    * Python is
    ok
    ++++Or not?
    +++
    Here is a normal paragraph

    1. Another list

I would expect the output given by perl or php:

    <ul>
    <li>Python is
    ok
    Or not?</li>
    </ul>

    <p>Here is a normal paragraph</p>

    <ol>
    <li>Another list</li>
    </ol>

Instead python-markdown gives us:

    <ul>
     <li><p>Python is
       ok
       Or not?
          <br />
       Here is a normal paragraph
    </p>

     </li>

     <li><p>Another list
    </p>

     </li>
    </ul>

Removing the 'blank line with spaces becomes a linebreak' rule
addresses this issue. Is there a legitimate use case for these lines
that I'm missing?

If no one has any persuasive arguments for keeping the current
behaviour, I'll update the tests to reflect the changes and then
finish up my patches for the various linebreak bugs.


-- 
----
Waylan Limberg
wa...@gm...