John McNamara wrote:
>>"=item 1" equates to an <ol> list item.
>No, it's not, because it requires the POD generator to manually number
things.
In terms of pod generators yes but in terms of pod consumers the numbers
don't always have to be in order. For example in Html the <ol> doesn't
require the number and in most wiki consumers the actual number isn't
used either. Furthermore, Pod::Simple parses the number =items into
sequentially numbered items even if the user hasn't. So, if you were
using a Pod::Simple based parser you could number all of your items as 1
or 999 and it shouldn't matter.
Pod has always kept things simple. If it offered "=item #" as an option,
it would still need to offer "=item 1" as an option, for lists that
aren't in strict sequential order, so for simplicity it only offers one
option for numbered lists. And, yes, most HTML formatters simply render
"=item 1" as a <ol> anyway, so there's no distinction. If Pod were to
offer a generic numbered list, "#" might be a bit confusing, since Perl
parsers treat that as a comment.
While we are on the topic (and this isn't directed to you Jerrad) I
would like to make a general observation that the syntax of =over =back
lists is too complicated. Both to write and to parse. Most wiki formats
use simple formats that can be just as expressive.
It's simple enough to parse, but agreed that it's a pain to write. There
have been some discussions on Pod extensions and simplifications in the
Perl 6 design process. As they settle out, I suspect we may see some of
it trickle back into Perl 5.10.x or 5.12.x.
Allison
