Re: [rt.cpan.org #55602] Bug #12239 was a mistake (nested formatting codes)

Ricardo Signes wrote:
> * Allison Randal <[email protected]> [2010-03-16T08:01:49]
>> David E. Wheeler wrote:
>>> My interpretation of that was that any angle brackets inside should be
>>> considered literal, and thus escaped. The whole point of `<<   >>` AFAICS
>>> was to allow one to use literal brackets without escaping them, as one must
>>> do in `<>`.
>> That's my interpretation too. If you have to escape every angle
>> bracket inside doubled-up C<<>> tags, there's really no point in
>> even having the doubled-up tags.
> 
> No one is saying that you have to escape every angle bracket inside anything.
> 
> For example, these should all be fine:
> 
>   The ->, or dereference, operator...
> 
>   Call C<< $object->foo >>
> 
>   If x > 10
> 
>   All items where C<< $x > 10 >>
> 
>   In the event that C<< $x > L<Foo>->blort >>....
> 
> In the first four, there is no ambiguity.  We don't have something in the form
> X<...> where X is [A-Z].  The only thing in question is the last one.  The
> question is whether all characters until the matching \s>> are considered
> literally or whether they're still Pod.
> 
> The bug report from CJM seems correct: formatting codes should work inside
> C<<>>.  There is nothing about that change which would require escpaing -> or
> other non-formatting-code uses of angle brackets.

Hmmmm... that does put a different light on it... But, I still think 
it's more useful and less confusing as an absolute escape on all angle 
brackets within the region. So either a) every angle is literal:

   C<< $x > L<Foo>->blort >>

or b) escape all non-special angles:

   C<$x E<gt> LE<lt>FooE<gt>-E<lt>blort>

The alternatives suggested:

   C<< $x > LZ<><Foo>->blort >>
   C<< $x > LE<lt>FooE<gt>->blort >>

Have a design taste of hacks required by a formatting language that's 
too limited and inconsistent.

The bug reporter asked how to write:

   S<< C<< name => value >> >>

That's just:

   S< C<< name => value >> >

The non-interpolation rule doesn't apply until you get to the double-angles.

Allison