[SPEC-CHANGE] lang parameter, minor line type changes, clarifications...

[solderpunk]

On Sun, Jun 07, 2020 at 04:41:49PM +0000, James Tomasino wrote:
> On 6/7/20 4:27 PM, solderpunk wrote:
> > The definition of unordered list item lines has been changed so that
> > they begin not just with "*" but with "* ".
> > Lines beginning with ">" are now defined to be quote lines, as per
> > popular demand.
> 
> Just to be clear, lists have a mandatory space after them, but for
> quotes and headings and links the whitespace is still set to zero-or-more?

That's how it current is, yeah.

This is, indeed, an inconsistency.  It arises from the fact that * is
the only one of the characters which are significant for determining
line types which has a strongly-engrained alternative use which has led
to actual erroneous formatting in the wild.

We *could* change this.  I don't see a really strong argument against
it, and consistency is good for learnability.  Then again, assuming that
clients are stripping leading whitespace from these line types, if
people get "the wrong idea" that those spaces are mandatory, it doesn't
actually cause any harm.

Cheers,
Solderpunk