[SPECS text/gemini] Heading lines proposal

[Sean Conner]

It was thus said that the Great Mad Ogrit once stated:
> Requiring a space for structural formatting seems wise. I don't believe the
> proposal implied that navigational formatting (=>) would require one.
> 
> But regarding quotes, although the > prefix may be visually familiar from
> text threads its use is inconsistent at best with regard to space before or
> after. Requiring a space will definitely break multiply-nested multi-line
> things (or make them redundant).

  The gemtext spec doesn't allow nesting at all, so multply-nested
multi-line things are already a problem (as I found out when trying to
convert HTML to gemtext).

> Which brings me to... If quotes are only meant for a single depth, but
> represent semantic rather than structural formatting (sourced content,
> could reasonably have an author or other meaningful attribution), would it
> make more sense to treat them like preformatted lines (line toggled) and
> retire the prefix entirely?

  No.  My blog (phlog, gemlog) makes extensive use of both <BLOCKQUOTE> and
<PRE> tags.  For instance this post from last year:

	gemini://gemini.conman.org/2019/03/31.1

In the originial HTML (http://boston.conman.org/2019/03/31.1), the format is
something long the lines of:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>...</P>

  <P>...</P>

</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>...</P>

<PRE>
...
</PRE>

<P>...</P>

  And while I had to go back quite a bit to find an entry with both a
blockquote and preformatted text, I do use blockquotes and preformatted text
quite often, and they have different semantic meanings.

  That post, by the way, shows how I deal with ordered lists in HTML (when
gemtext only supports a type of unordered list).

> * Quoted content when visually distinct has more in common with
> preformatted content in that, while it can be wrapped and flowed, you're
> often quoting something by copy-pasting at which point the original layout
> can be relevant

  True.  Trying to quote preformatted text is not easy with gemtext.  That's
one of the reasons I still prefer HTML (which Gemini *can* serve, by the
way).

  -spc