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Consistent formating long descriptions as input data (Was: RFC: Better formatting for long descriptions)



Hi,

as promissed in the overlongish thread [1] I would like to
sort out the details how we should enhance the consistency and
parseability of our long descriptions in a poll.  I agree that
it is not a good idea to solve technical issues in a poll.
But this is not about a technical issue.  There is a fact that
we need a defined structure (technical issue 1) to be able
to parse the long descriptions (whatever library or self invented
code will be used - technical issue 2).  But the details how
the structure should look like is more or less an aesthetical
question (because several tools print the long descriptions
in verbose mode) and so the question is about this aesthetics.
If you want to discuss the technical issues please read all mails
of the thread and continue discussing this (preferably with a
new subject).

Here is the URL of the poll:

   http://doodle.com/2bp8rrh3i35sr4s7

Kind regards

        Andreas.

On Thu, 16 Apr 2009, Andreas Tille wrote:

If you make a suggestion please answer the following question:

 A. Does the suggestion enable parsing logical structures like
    two level itemize lists?
    (This is what I want to approach and what is IMHO needed)
 B. Does the suggestion enable keeping the majority of description
    untouched and enables keeping the currently existing tools?
    (This is important to gain any acceptance)

If one of the question above is answered with "no" please mention
whether you are volunteering to do the work which is needed to
port the existing stuff to match your suggestion.

Currently I would feed the poll with 4 suggestions:

 0. Keep anything as unstructured as it is.
    Answer to A: no
    Answer to B: yes

 1. Use '*' for first order item lists, '-' for second order
    item lists and use '  ' (exactly two spaces) before the
    '*' and '    ' (exactly four spaces) before the '-'. After
    '*' and '-' exactly one space should be used and continued
    lines should start in the same column as the text starts
    above.
    Answer to A: yes
    Answer to B: yes

 2. Use '*' for first order item lists, '-' for second order
    item lists.  Spacing does not matter as long as continued
    lines will start in the same column as the text above.
    Answer to A: yes
    Answer to B: yes

 3. Use any character of ('*', '-', '+') to start a list and
    mark the level of the list by strictly following spacing
    rules and use '  ' (exactly two spaces) before the selected
    character for starting first order list and '    ' (exactly
    four spaces) before the character for starting second order
    list. After the marker symbold exactly one space should be
    used and continued lines should start in the same column as
    the text starts above.
    Answer to A: yes
    Answer to B: yes

If you want to make further suggestions just append this list.
I'll start a doodle poll next Monday.  Depending from the outcome
of this poll I will submit a patch for "6.2. Best practices for
debian/control".


[1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2009/03/msg01165.html

--
http://fam-tille.de


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