Markdown Discuss - Feb 2011 - two lists without separating text (corner case?)

First we consider two lists with different type:

- foo
- bar

1. first
1. second

There are two interceptions:

a. one unordered list
b. one unordered list followed by one ordered list

Implementations conforming to a:

- Markdown.pl
- Python Markdown
- BlueCloth
- MarkdownJ
- markdown.lua, 
- Showdown

Implementations conforming to b:

- PHP Markdown
- Text::Markdown
- Maruku
- Pandoc
- Discount
- PEG Markdown

I feel that option b is intuitive.



Then what about two lists of the same type?

- apple
- orange

* John
* Jane

Is this a) ONE or b) TWO list?

All markdown implementation mentioned above
intercept this as one list.

Again, I feel that option b (two list) is intuitive.

What's more, if we intercept this as one list,
then how can we write two lists without separating
text in markdown?  I've no idea except using HTML:

- apple
- orange
<!-- Dear Markdown: I want two lists. -->
* John
* Jane

But I'm confusing when considering ordered lists:

1. foo
1. bar

2. apple
2. orange

One list or two?

What about this?

1. foo
2. bar

1. apple
2. orange

It seems ambiguous. In fact, I want
something like ReStructuredText:

1. foo
2. bar

1) apple
2) orange

For this one, I think there are two lists.
But this is not in markdown's syntax.

weakish <weakish <at> gmail.com> writes:
> What's more, if we intercept this as one list,
> then how can we write two lists without separating
> text in markdown?  I've no idea except using HTML:
> 
> - apple
> - orange
> <!-- Dear Markdown: I want two lists. -->
> * John
> * Jane

This idea just came to my mind:
use empty blockquote or code span:

- apple
- orange
><SPC>
* John
* Jane

` `     

+ foo
+ bar

This works in all markdown implementation.

Empty code span feels better to me,
since using empty blockquote requires an
invisible space character.

But maybe `<!-- Dear Markdown: I want two lists. -->`
is more clear and explicit.

On Feb 8, 2011, at 2:44 AM, weakish wrote:
> First we consider two lists with different type:
>
> - foo
> - bar
>
> 1. first
> 1. second
>
> There are two interceptions:
>
> a. one unordered list
> b. one unordered list followed by one ordered list
     I guess the question is just how often will you
     write two separate lists in a row without some
     intermediate commentary?   It doesn't seem like
     it would flow all that naturally.


     -david parsons