Hi, I think we need to enumerate some goals for this proposed change. Here is a start:
- Minimal disruption for current packages. The impact should be measured by numbers of packages impacted + Any specification of which of *, +, - to use as th first level item will impact more packages than not specifying it, by several hundred + The same is true for specifying the mark used for second level list items + Specifying exact number of spaces will also hit current packages, and will be a source of errors in the future. - Ability to recognize and render the following logical entities, in decreasing order of importance: + unordered lists + ordered lists + emphasis + strong emphasis + definition lists + hypertext links + underlines, and strike throughs - Readability for people looking at non-enhanced renditions, i.e., using less on the Packages file. Sticking to widely known conventions, using the same conventions that peple are used to using in email, and Wikis, is a plus. - Ease of use for description writers. Again, sticking with standards that people already know and use is better than making our own, more restrictive standards - Not adding hugely to bloat for the Packages file This kinda excludes verbose markup like XML (which would have failed the readability test too) At this point, I would say that Markdown/Resstructued text meets most of the goals above, as long as we restrict the markup to the list above: * unordered lists * ordered lists * emphasis * strong emphasis * definition lists * hypertext links * underlines, and strike throughs manoj -- "If we can't fix it -- we'll fix it so nobody can." Gibbons Manoj Srivastava <sriva...@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/> 1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org