Re: [Rfc-markdown] [rfc-i] [Tools-discuss] Tool to convert TXT to RFCXML

[Julian Reschke <[e-mail]>]

On 17.07.2023 11:35, Jay Daley wrote:
>
>
>> On 17 Jul 2023, at 08:58, Martin Thomson <[e-mail]> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 17, 2023, at 16:47, Carsten Bormann wrote:
>>> * add <nobr or similar to RFCXML, so we don’t have to play the
>>> character substitution games.
>>
>> This.  The way HTML does it is with CSS directives[1].  There is a lot
>> of control over this through CSS, though for annoying reasons wrapping
>> is still not fully specified.
>>Trouble
>> For our purposes, it seems like a simple <nobr>...</nobr> element
>> would be fine.  (Which leads me to ponder a new kramdown extension
>> whereby words could be automatically wrapped in various span-level
>> elements to ensure consistent styling for keywords...)
>
> A word of caution.  The authoring markup languages are being pulled in
> two different directions and if that is not well managed then I fear we
> will end up with an even more complex way of working than exists now.
>   Those two directions are - does the markup represent formatting or
> does the markup represent semantics.  As I understand it, the original
> consensus design goal was to prioritise the representation of semantics.
>   i.e. not to prevent the formatting, but to capture the semantics first
> and then add finer grained formatting to that,
>
> If we approach this specific issue from the semantic perspective then
> that would better be served by adding a new element, such as <term> …
> </term> that is intended to represent a technical term used inline in
> any body text and which therefore must remain as an atomic whole.
> ...

I agree partly.

The trouble with that is that even a rule like "do not insert LF into
terms" may not be always desirable. For instance, jn HTTP we have
several longish header field names, and I would not want them to be not
broken across lines.

Remember, the alternative is that lines, in particular in narrow
displays or in plain text, will have lots of horizontal space instead.

Best regards, Julian