Re: 'false' list item

[Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com>]

Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com> writes:

> perhaps if there is no blank line above or below, then it could be not a list.
>

Initially, that was my thought as well. Unfortunately, it isn't quite
that straight forward. Consider the list

     1. Item 1
     2. Item 2
     3. Item 3

The second item has no blank line above or below, but it is a list item.
With the blank line approach, the list would have to be

     1. item 1

     2. item 2

     3. item 3

which I doubt many would like. What I guess is really needed is a list
'environment' - once you see the first list item, following a blank
line, your in a list environment until the next blank line. However,
then, if you have list items which are multi-line items, you cannot have
a blank line between items as that would signal a new list environment.
Personally, if the items are longer, visually, I do like a blank line
between the items. So now either we need to add some sort of list
'marker' or we need something else, such as saying a list must be
indented further than the surrounding paragraphs i.e. if you had (using
loren ipsum for text)

-----
Aliquam erat volutpat. Nunc eleifend leo vitae magna. In id erat non
orci commodo lobortis. Proin neque massa, cursus ut, gravida ut,
lobortis eget, lacus. Sed diam. Praesent fermentum tempor tellus. Nullam
tempus. Mauris ac felis vel velit tristique imperdiet. Donec at pede.
Etiam vel neque nec dui dignissim bibendum. Vivamus id enim. Phasellus
neque orci, porta a, aliquet quis, semper a, massa. Phasellus purus.
Pellentesque tristique imperdiet tortor. Nam euismod tellus id erat.

1. Mauris ac felis vel velit tristique imperdiet.

Pellentesque dapibus suscipit ligula. Donec posuere augue in quam. Etiam
vel tortor sodales tellus ultricies commodo. Suspendisse potenti. Aenean
in sem ac leo mollis blandit. Donec neque quam, dignissim in, mollis
nec, sagittis eu, wisi. Phasellus lacus. Etiam laoreet quam sed arcu.
Phasellus at dui in ligula mollis ultricies. Integer placerat tristique
nisl. Praesent augue. Fusce commodo. Vestibulum convallis, lorem a
tempus semper, dui dui euismod elit, vitae placerat urna tortor vitae
lacus. Nullam libero mauris, consequat quis, varius et, dictum id, arcu.
Mauris mollis tincidunt felis. Aliquam feugiat tellus ut neque. Nulla
facilisis, risus a rhoncus fermentum, tellus tellus lacinia purus, et
dictum nunc justo sit amet elit.
-----

the 1. line is not a list, but

-----
Aliquam erat volutpat. Nunc eleifend leo vitae magna. In id erat non
orci commodo lobortis. Proin neque massa, cursus ut, gravida ut,
lobortis eget, lacus. Sed diam. Praesent fermentum tempor tellus. Nullam
tempus. Mauris ac felis vel velit tristique imperdiet. Donec at pede.
Etiam vel neque nec dui dignissim bibendum. Vivamus id enim. Phasellus
neque orci, porta a, aliquet quis, semper a, massa. Phasellus purus.
Pellentesque tristique imperdiet tortor. Nam euismod tellus id erat.

    1. Mauris ac felis vel velit tristique imperdiet.

Pellentesque dapibus suscipit ligula. Donec posuere augue in quam. Etiam
vel tortor sodales tellus ultricies commodo. Suspendisse potenti. Aenean
in sem ac leo mollis blandit. Donec neque quam, dignissim in, mollis
nec, sagittis eu, wisi. Phasellus lacus. Etiam laoreet quam sed arcu.
Phasellus at dui in ligula mollis ultricies. Integer placerat tristique
nisl. Praesent augue. Fusce commodo. Vestibulum convallis, lorem a
tempus semper, dui dui euismod elit, vitae placerat urna tortor vitae
lacus. Nullam libero mauris, consequat quis, varius et, dictum id, arcu.
Mauris mollis tincidunt felis. Aliquam feugiat tellus ut neque. Nulla
facilisis, risus a rhoncus fermentum, tellus tellus lacinia purus, et
dictum nunc justo sit amet elit.
---

the 1. is a list item i.e. being indented compared to surrounding text makes it
a list item. Any further lines indented to that level or more (for sub
lists) are also considered part of the list, until the next blank line.

The problem with this of course is that if you have a sub-heading which
only has a list of items, there is no surrounding text within that
section, so how would you identify it was a list?

The issue is, if we decide this is a bug, can we fix it? Is it a bug or
is it just an accepted limitation of the org document format and what we
have to do is ensure either no line starts with a '1. ' or we use
something like a unicode character so that it doesn't look like a
number+period+space and therefore not a list item?

--
Tim Cross