Re: [Tools-discuss] markdown .md file tools

[Carsten Bormann <[e-mail]>]

On 29. Apr 2022, at 21:25, Behcet Sarikaya <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> I think that kramdown tool that I was using gives error messages that are tricky, it does not point exactly to where the problem is, you need to find it yourself

Hi Behcet,

I’m sorry, but I can’t let that stand.

Of course, any piece of software sometimes produces error messages that don’t tell you exactly where to fix the input and how.
If software could do that, there would be no need for error messages — the software could just fix the input itself.

The two messages you got were:

>> *** Input contains HT ("tab") characters. Undefined behavior will ensue.
> 
> This is a warning. How to fix this depends on your platform and/or editor of choice.
> 
>> /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/psych.rb:456:in `parse': (<unknown>): did not find expected key while parsing a block mapping at line 36 column 3 (Psych::SyntaxError)
> 
> Something is wrong with your YAML header at line 36, column 3.

OK, the first message is opaque.  It is just a reminder that in this century, we shouldn’t be using HT characters in text input because desasters happen like RFC 7386/7396 (an RFC needed to be reissued because HT characters were introduced in editing and led to incorrect pseudocode).  The message is not more specific because people who have one HT character in their input often have many and are better off with expanding tabs in the favorite editor before trying again.

The second message *cannot* be more specific as to where the problem is.  Line 36, column 3.

Grüße, Carsten