Re: para definition, syntax and semantic. Summary

Pablo,

You are correct and incorrect at the same time about the line breaks in a
paragraph and CSS handling the display. Your first statements about HTML
for structure and CSS for style are correct. However the whitespace within
a paragraph are not an issue once converted and rendered into HTML since
multiple spaces are collapsed into a single space; so soft breaks in the
text will have no effect on the display in a browser. That also means that
the soft breaks don't help or hurt the HTML display of the text. The job of
CSS would be to define a container for the text that constrains the
text-wrap to a readable width. Once an HTML document has been created, that
document is not intended for human readability, it is merely a document
ready for rendering by a browser; thus the ~80 column limit is no longer a
concern (again for an output file, in this case an HTML document).

Now, I am ambivalent to the choice of whether we collapse the lines within
a paragraph element of the output document or not. I just don't think that
it makes that much difference either way; now take that from someone who is
well versed in HTML and not any of the other target types such as TeX or
LaTeX (I didn't even know there was a difference between the two).

However, semantically speaking, breaking paragraphs with <br /> should not
be commonplace anyway. Poems are the best example I can think of where this
actually fits. That being said I don't think that it should be encouraged
to use the soft break syntax since it is improper and less readable in the
MD document. When the paragraph above ends at the line-length of all the
lines above and below then in the MD document the paragraphs are difficult
to distinguish.

Clarification of "less readable" from above:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of
the selfish
and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and
good will,
shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his
brother's
keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee
with great
vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy My
brothers. And you will know My name is the Lord, when I lay My vengeance
upon thee. <--- end of first paragraph - soft break
Now that we know who you are, I know who I am. I'm not a mistake! It all
makes
sense! In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch-villain's going
to be?
He's the exact opposite of the hero. And most times they're friends, like
you
and me! I should've known way back when... You know why, David? Because of
the
kids. They called me Mr Glass.


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Joshua T Kalis
Web Developer
517.325.3141
http://joshuakalis.com

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