Comment by 😎 flipperzero
Re: "Sorry if this has come up before... I'm confused about how…"
@lars_the_bear I see where you're coming from, catching on to the rationale related to what's involved for the spacing you bring up. Along that is why I also appreciate the chosen capability @skyjake conveys to do with what clients do or don't perform, if in case I can help clear things up a bit between how the two ideas correlate.
Just like how you elaborate lars, yes client's don't -have- to space paragraphs In that same logic flow jake presents, in regards to what clients 'have' to do or not related to any presumed obligation. Rather, to lars' credit, the idea is that the decision whether or not that spacing is automated is -left up to- the client to add margins (or not).
Apr 28 · 9 days ago
3 Later Comments ↓
🚀 lars_the_bear [OP] · Apr 28 at 10:18:
@flipperzero : "...whether or not that spacing is automated is -left up to- the client to add margins (or not)."
Well, yes; I think the specification is simply not clear enough here. It doesn't actually use the word "paragraph". Instead it says:
Each individual lines[sic] in a Gemtext document is a stand-alone entity.
I'm interpreting "entity" as "paragraph" because it seemed natural to do so. But there's nothing to compel a client to behave this way.
Thus authors are more-or-less compelled to insert additional spacing, because they can't assume that clients will.
Sigh. The more I use Gemtext, the less I like it.
🌆 skyjake [mod...] · Apr 28 at 14:12:
Thus authors are more-or-less compelled to insert additional spacing, because they can't assume that clients will.
That is basically it, yes. It's part and parcel of the compromises being made that favor easy implementability of a Gemtext parser and renderer. A client does not and should not need to worry about sophisticated text layout to be able to present Gemtext.
🚀 lars_the_bear [OP] · Apr 28 at 14:42:
@skyjake : "A client does not and should not need to worry about sophisticated text layout to be able to present Gemtext."
There's nothing sophisticated about putting a bit of space after a paragraph. All that would have been needed was for the specification to say "clients should/should not treat text lines as paragraphs". That's it. Then everybody would know how to write, and clients would know how to behave.
Now we have a situation where most writers space their lines, but some don't, and clients can't render both adequately.
Original Post
Sorry if this has come up before... I'm confused about how use vertical spacing in Gemtext. In theory, there should be no need for any additional vertical space except in pre-formatted blocks, because Gemtext is line-based. If you write each paragraph on its own line, the client should be able to apply reasonable spacing to make it readable. And yet... many writers do insert additional blank lines, particularly below headings (Bubble does). If a client gives full weight to this extra spacing --…