Conference vaxuum::document_ft

658.0. "LSE template formatting is inconsistent" by CASEE::CLARK (Ward Clark) Tue Jul 14 1987 13:37

    In my limited use of LSE tag tokens, I've encountered inconsistencies
    in the expanded templates.  Here's a simple example:

	P^E  expands to   <P>
			  {text}

	LE^E  expands to  <LE>{text}

    What I'd like to see from most EXPANDs is something like this:

	<TAGNAME> {required-text}
	<TAGNAME> [optional-text]
	<TAGNAME>({required-arg}\[optional-arg]...)

    Another aspect of consistency is vertical white space (blank lines).
    Most templates include no blank lines.  However, some include what
    seems to be unnecessary blank lines, which I then have to delete if I
    don't want it (which I usually don't).  A simple example is the TABLE
    template, which includes a trailing blank line. 

    -- Ward

    Personally, I prefer lots of blank lines.  For example, I'd like
    to see p expand to
    
    	<p>
    
    	{text}
    
    Why?  Two reasons:  First, I can use the editor's FILL command to
    compress my current paragraph, without being forced to explicitly
    select the paragraph.  Second, DOCUMENT tags are hard to read. 
    While embedded tags such as <emphasis> are unavoidable, moving
    paragraph-level tags, such as <p> or <le> to separate lines makes
    the text easier to read.  Fortunately, I have a VAXstation with
    44 line windows; I can see how other people might not appreciate
    all the vertical white space.
    
       Gary