Last modified: 2014-09-24 01:32:20 UTC
Currently, list items are terminated by a newline. I'd like that rule to be modified so that list items are terminated when the next line begins with some sort of list specifier, or when the next line is empty (or perhaps only whitespace). Lines that begin without list specifiers should be treated as separate paragraphs. The current rule makes it very troublesome to create list items with multiple paragraphs, and as far as I can tell, there is no way to embed preformatted text in a list item. For example: # This is the first list item, first paragraph This is the first list item, second paragraph Here is some preformatted text with the first list item Here is the rest of the preformatted text # This is the second list item (numbered as 2) With the current rule, the above is rendered as a single item list, then a plain text paragraph, then a preformatted text paragraph, then a second single item list whose number starts with 1. This makes it difficult to create sophisticated lists. Under my proposed change, the above would be rendered instead as a single list, where the first item contains two plain text paragraphs and one preformatted text paragraph. This change is mostly compatible with current Wiki pages, since most authors would normally place an empty line after their list before starting non-list text. One could justify the use of a single newline to start a new paragraph instead of an empty line because one is in a list context. (i.e. the whole list is a single paragraph.) By the way, as a workaround I'm manually numbering my paragraphs: 1. This is the first list item, first paragraph This is the first list item, second paragraph Here is some preformatted text with the first list item Here is the rest of the preformatted text 2. This is the second list item (numbered as 2) Please let me know if you have a better workaround.
Severe problems arise when Users break <a href= >.. </a> pairs by a newline. Then the list item tag is closed </li> before the <a>-tag is closed, resulting in incorrect HTML-code: Example Wiki Code: <pre> # [[WikiArticle_with_a_very_long_name_going_right_to_the_end_of_the_line| Short Description]] </pre> Results in the following code: <pre> <ol><li> <a href="/WikiDev/index.php?title=WikiArticle_with_a_very_long_name_going_right_to_the_end_of_the_line&action=edit" class="new" title ="WikiArticle with a very long name going right to the end of the line"> </li></ol> <p>Short Description</a> </pre> This code might not be rendered correctly by all available browsers.
This seems to be very similar to bug 1584. Probably one of them should be marked as dup, but not sure which...
*** Bug 2280 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I have fixed this bug, patch is here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jiangxin/Patch_Blankline_As_List_Terminator wiki code: ====================== #item 1 blah blah blah... ##item 1-1 \ continued blah blah blah... ##item 1-2 <pre> pre text of item 1.2 above is a blank line # in pre block * in pre block </pre> #item 2 #:<pre> blah blah blah... </pre> another paragraph. rendered as: ====================== <ol><li>item 1<br> blah blah blah... <ol><li>item 1-1 continued<br> blah blah blah... </li><li>item 1-2<br> <pre> pre text of item 1.2 above is a blank line # in pre block * in pre block </pre> </li></ol> </li><li>item 2 <dl><dd><pre> blah blah blah... </pre> </dd></dl> </li></ol> <p>another paragraph. </p>
JiangXin patch (comment 4) looks cool. But here is another suggestion: Let me explicitly start and terminate lists. A list sould be started with #( and terminated with )#. The #( string should be translated to <OL><LI>; )# should terminate the list with </OL>. List items should be entered as usual, with a hash #. A similar extension should be used for bulleted lists, i.e. *( and )*. Note that such markup should be fairly easy to parse.
*** Bug 5308 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This is how to fix it (also filed in bug 5308 at http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5308): LET ME EXPLICITLY START AND TERMINATE LISTS. A list could be started with #( and terminated with )#. The #( string should be translated to <OL><LI>; )# should terminate the list with </OL>. List items should be entered as usual, with a hash #. A similar extension should be used for bulleted lists, i.e. *( and )*. Note that such markup should be fairly easy to parse. It also does not conflict with existing pages. Both types of lists styles can co-exist in one document! Editors can continue to use # or * for simple lists and #( )# or *( )* for more complex layouts.
That would obviously conflict with any list where "(" appeared right at the start of the line. I'm not sure it looks terribly obvious or attractive either. Can you provide a sample of what this would look like in use?
Ad. 8 True, in the unlikely scenario that a "(" starts the list item the rendering would change. But the remedy is easy -- if you really want to start a list item with a "(" -- put a space after the asterisk/hash, like that * ( # ( BTW, can you find _one_ wiki page that uses list items starting with a "("? I couldn't ;-) How that would look in real use? Ok, I want to have a list with three numbered items showing three steps needed to configure something. I want a screenshot and paragraph with preformated text in the list. This is how I would do it with the #( )# syntax: === Configuring E-mail === #( To use a fancy signature go to the http:/blah url, log in and click the Mail tab. Your screen should look like in the figure below [[Image:000.png]] # Select the "Send e-mail in HTML format" checkbox. # Put the following HTML code into the signature field: <B>Joe Average</A> <FONT COLOR="blue">Shown in Wiki using preformatted text</FONT> Click Save when you are done. )# That would be rendered as a numbered list, with three items. The list starts with #( and terminates with )#.
Is Bug 5121: Virtual lines using a trailing escape character (as "\") about the same topic?
(In reply to comment #8) > That would obviously conflict with any list where "(" appeared right > at the start of the line. I'm not sure it looks terribly obvious or > attractive either. The consistent thing would be to borrow from table markup. Use {#, {*, {;/{: to begin the respective lists, and #} *} ;}/:} to end them. A line-initial {# followed somewhere before the end of the page by a #} is quite unlikely, and likewise for all the rest.
*** Bug 6677 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #11) > > The consistent thing would be to borrow from table markup. Use {#, {*, {;/{: to > begin the respective lists, and #} *} ;}/:} to end them. A line-initial {# > followed somewhere before the end of the page by a #} is quite unlikely (...) Ok -- I do not care about the character combination -- as long as I am able to __explicitly__ close lists I'll be happy :-)
Why isn't JiangXin's patch applied in the current versions?
Because devs are not always willing to spend their time looking over submitted patches. This is a volunteer project, remember. The patch will also break existing behavior by continuing a list item where currently the entire list is ended.
I keep running into this while attempting to use MediaWiki as our helpdesk procedure reference. It is *very* common in that scenario to want to show some commands to type using e.g. <pre> in a list item (step 10 of 20). While I can see that simply applying JiangXin's patch might break existing pages, the ideas from comment 9 and comment 11 sound like a nice addition to the current markup. No I don't have a patch, just commenting to let people know I'd love this feature too, and I think it's important.
(In reply to comment #11) > > The consistent thing would be to borrow from table markup. Use {#, {*, {;/{: to > begin the respective lists, and #} *} ;}/:} to end them. A line-initial {# > followed somewhere before the end of the page by a #} is quite unlikely, and > likewise for all the rest. {#, {*, {;, and {: should be unified into only one markup. MediaWiki should automagically determine the first item inside it, whether it is *, #, ;, or :. Example (when unified to {* ), {* # aaa .... # bbb *} {* * aaa .... * bbb *}
Bug #1584 is clearly a duplicate of this one, but perhaps more cogent over there.
*** Bug 12449 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 13642 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 25587 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
It's all well and good to mark my bug 25587 as a duplicate, but this issue has been open since 2004 (six years). I believe my approach (in bug 25587) is the simplest yet proposed and should not break existing wiki articles. Most other approaches talk of explicitly opening and closing lists. My approach is simply "continue the previous list."
I am agreeing with S. McCandlish that this issue is a subset of the issues discussed in bug #1584, so I am marking this a duplicate of that. Also, I'm removing the "need-review" keyword and adding the "reviewed" keyword, because Aryeh reviewed the submitted patch by saying: "The patch will also break existing behavior by continuing a list item where currently the entire list is ended." This issue also bothers me, so I'm going to add myself to the cc list for bug #1584 and I suggest you do the same, if you haven't already. Brion Vibber and Gabriel Wicke are currently working on rewriting the parser to fix issues like this one, hence the "newparser" keyword on this bug and on bug #1584 -- to follow their work, subscribe to https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitext-l . *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 1584 ***
I'm not sure this is a duplicate; this bug has a more generic summary which also covered some of the issues/solutions which have been duped to it, while bug 1584 is about one specific use case.
*** Bug 8318 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
