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

[Matthew Graybosch]

On Sun, 7 Jun 2020 16:27:23 +0000
solderpunk <solderpunk at SDF.ORG> wrote:

> I have just pushed some changes to the Gemini specification.  You can
> see the new new v0.13.0 spec at:

Thanks for the work you've been doing. If you don't mind, I have a
couple of questions as a content author.

> Perhaps the biggest change, in conceptual terms, is the introduction
> of the "lang" parameter for text/gemini.  However, most clients will
> not need to make any changes whatsoever on account of this.

I just read the relevant part of the spec, but I'm still not clear on
how I should go about specifying that my text is US English. Do I just
have to add "lang=en_US" on the first line of a text/gemini file?

> Lines beginning with ">" are now defined to be quote lines, as per
> popular demand.

This will be handy, but now I'm wondering about pre-formatted quotes
(mainly for poetry, song lyrics, screenplays, etc.)

For example, if a Gemini content author wanted to quote from a modern
poem like T. S. Eliot's _The Waste Land_ and preserve the original
formatting, would they do something like this?

```
> "What is that noise?"
>                           The wind under the door.
> "What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?"
>                            Nothing again nothing.
>                                                         "Do
> "You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember
> "Nothing?"
```

I suspect that most clients would interpret this block as just
pre-formatted text and render it in monospace--which I acknowledge is
correct behavior according to the current spec but not necessarily what
a content author wants if they decide to load their own page to see how
it looks in various clients.

Furthermore, looking for quote characters inside a preformatted block
and then rendering that block in a variable-width font instead (when
applicable) sounds like a good way to introduce bugs.

I'd like to suggest instead that we import the | character followed by
a space to denote line blocks from reStructuredText as an advanced line
type.

=>
https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html#line-blocks

Of course, I suppose content authors could just use reStructuredText
instead, which should probably be the goto format for text that uses
footnotes/endnotes as well.

-- 
Matthew Graybosch           https://www.matthewgraybosch.com
#include <disclaimer.h>	    gemini://starbreaker.org
Harrisburg,PA	 	    gemini://demifiend.org
"Out of order?! Even in the future nothing works."