Re: [BUG] adding new plain lists item changes previous one it it ends in a number on a single lijne followed by a dot

From: Christian Moe <mail@christianmoe.com>
To: Nicolas Goaziou <n.goaziou@gmail.com>
Cc: emacs-orgmode <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: [BUG] adding new plain lists item changes previous one	it it ends in a number on a single lijne followed by a dot
Date: Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:11:45 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <4D4A7F61.4010202@christianmoe.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87bp2u6stl.wl%n.goaziou@gmail.com>

Hi,

For once, I have to disagree: Numbers at the beginning of the line 
inadvertently starting a list item is a bug.

It means you can mess up your exported document (it doesn't just 
happen at M-RET) by just writing a perfectly normal text, and there is 
no easy-to-remember escape. (I really don't like the invisible-space 
workaround -- it's hard to remember how to insert it, and it's a 
bizarre trick to have to tell newcomers.)

ReStructuredText provides a backslash-escape for this, even though its 
more rigid structure reduces the chances of the error happening.

Could we borrow that trick, or would it conflict with something else?
E.g.

-------------------------------
- Several astonishing things happened in
    \2007.
- And then there was another item.
- X
-------------------------------

Yours,
Christian

On 2/2/11 10:16 PM, Nicolas Goaziou wrote:
> Hello,
>
>>>>>> Gregor Zattler writes:
>
>> adding a new list item via M-RET (org-insert-heading) may change
>> text in a previous list item, if this ends in a number on a single
>> line followed by a dot:
>
>> -------------------------------
>> - Several astonishing things happened in
>>    2007.
>> - And then there was another item.
>> - X
>> -------------------------------
>
>> Note that " 2007." has changed to " 1." in line 2.
>
> Yes, and unfortunately, I don't see any solution here. It isn't really
> a bug: a line starting with white space, followed by a number sticked
> to a dot is exactly the definition, regexp wise, of a list item (as
> explained in `org-plain-list-ordered-item-terminator' doc-string).
> That's why removing the dot solves the problem.
> There are two workarounds I can think of, at the moment:
>
> 1. Use (setq org-plain-list-ordered-item-terminator ?)). But that will
>     affect every ordered list.
> 2. Insert some invisible char (non-breaking space " ") in front of the
>     item, or just after the dot. But this requires manual changes every
>     time the problem arises.
>
>
> As a side-note, this problem isn't specific to recent versions of Org.
> For example, in 6.33, use M-RET at X in the following example:
>
>> -------------------------------
>> - Several astonishing things happened in
>>    2007. And then there was another item.X
>> -------------------------------
>
> Regards,
>
> --
> Nicolas
>
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