Re: Z<> in =item

[email protected] (Karl Williamson)
Newsgroups perl.pod-people
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On 06/26/2011 05:34 AM, Shawn H Corey wrote:
> On 11-06-25 11:53 PM, Karl Williamson wrote:
>> In perldiag.pod, there is a line like this
>>
>> =item Z<>500 Server error
>>
>> All the other items form a definition list. My guess is that this is to
>> make sure that the 500 isn't mistaken for a numbered =item in the list.
>> However, with html, anyway, I don't see any difference in the output
>> with and without the Z<>, and podchecker ignores the Z<> and says that
>> the list has mismatched item types.
>>
>> Can someone explain?
>
> Originally, these are the only valid =item's:
>
> =item *
>
> =item 1
>
> =item 1.
>
> =item definition
>
>
> These are invalid but frequency occur:
>
> =item * bulleted?
>
> =item 1 numbered?
>
> =item 1. numbered?
>
>
> They all should be treated as a definition but seldom are. That means,
> an `=item Z<> anything` should be treated like a definition.
>
>

So then, does the attached patch look ok?
0001-perlpod-Add-info-about-using-Z-in-items.patch (text/x-patch, 1.8 KB)
From ee770e42cab702ec6a23e2a97f0833a051758c55 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Karl Williamson <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2011 11:35:45 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] perlpod: Add info about using Z<> in =items

---
 pod/perlpod.pod |   15 ++++++++++++++-
 1 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pod/perlpod.pod b/pod/perlpod.pod
index 068afe4..ee7d715 100644
--- a/pod/perlpod.pod
+++ b/pod/perlpod.pod
@@ -156,7 +156,11 @@ And perhaps most importantly, keep the items consistent: either use
 "=item *" for all of them, to produce bullets; or use "=item 1.",
 "=item 2.", etc., to produce numbered lists; or use "=item foo",
 "=item bar", etc.--namely, things that look nothing like bullets or
-numbers.
+numbers.  (If you have a list that contains both: 1) things that don't
+look like bullets nor numbers,  plus 2) things that do, you should 
+preface the bullet- or number-like items with C<ZE<lt>E<gt>>.  See
+L<ZE<lt>E<gt>|/ZE<lt>E<gt> -- a null (zero-effect) formatting code>
+below for an example.)
 
 If you start with bullets or numbers, stick with them, as
 formatters use the first "=item" type to decide how to format the
@@ -535,6 +539,15 @@ EE<lt>...E<gt> code sometimes.  For example, instead of
 the "E<lt>" so they can't be considered
 the part of a (fictitious) "NE<lt>...E<gt>" code.
 
+Another use is to indicate that I<stuff> in C<=item ZE<lt>E<gt>I<stuff...>>
+is not to be considered to be a bullet or number.  For example,
+without the C<ZE<lt>E<gt>>, the line
+
+ =item Z<>500 Server error
+
+could possibly be parsed as an item in a numbered list when it isn't
+meant to be.
+
 =for comment
  This was formerly explained as a "zero-width character".  But it in
  most parser models, it parses to nothing at all, as opposed to parsing
-- 
1.7.1
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