[Structuredtext-develop] Re: restructured text numbered lists

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

engelbert gruber wrote:
> i indent by 2 characters, e.g.
> ---
> 1. first we have to
>   see this.
> ---
> this gives an error because of the unindent
> although the text looks reasonable.

The reason is because it's ambiguous. Assume this is acceptable::

    1. first line
      second line

Then what do we do in these cases? ::

    2. first line
       second line

    3. first line
        second line

At what point does the paragraph become a definition list?

Indentation is significant in reStructuredText, so there is a
near-zero-tolerance policy for ambiguity.

> it gets problematic when e.g.
> ---
> 9. a growing indentation, when
>    using the current implementation
> 10. because here it walks over
>     onto a
> 986. ...
> ---

If alignment is your concern, I would suggest this, which is perfectly
valid::

    9.   start with plenty
         of indentation
    10.  so that when the
         number of digits
         grows, there's
    986. enough space for all!

> cheers

Thanks.

-- 
David Goodger    go...@us...    Open-source projects:
 - Python Docstring Processing System: http://docstring.sourceforge.net
 - reStructuredText: http://structuredtext.sourceforge.net
 - The Go Tools Project: http://gotools.sourceforge.net