Last modified: 2014-04-23 17:27:05 UTC
In the software at Wikisource it not possible to have paragraphs (by inserting empty lines) in references similar to the normal text. See: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:Aschroet/test. In the normal HTML view the empty lines are just ignored and only one text block is shown. Even more interesting is the behavior in case when the text is exported by "Download as PDF". There, the paragraphs are created but not in a correct way. The usage of <nowiki><p></nowiki> helps for the HTML view but not for PDF. The usage if <nowiki><br /></nowiki> works but does not generate real paragraphs but only newline in HTML and PDF.
Thanks for taking the time to report this! What is an example/real usecase to use paragraphs in references? As you wrote, a workaround is to insert a <br> to enforce a linebreak. [Resetting component, as "Export/Import" refers to "Special:Export and Special:Import" only.]
For the example, in Wikisource we convert orignial sources to digital texts. Footnotes as e.g. in https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Seite:Die_Gartenlaube_%281865%29_703.jpg (sorry, i usually work in German wikisource) are mapped to <ref> blocks. Since they are from time to time a little bit longer there are paragraphs inside the footnodes. Yes, <br /> enforces a line break but not indent of the following sentence. I am just wondering why there is a different treatment in references than in the normal text for "normal" paragraphs.
This problem has been going on for awhile for ref tags. Until today, newlines did not work correctly in blockquotes and various blockquote type templates (bug 6200). The bug was finally fixed today on enwiki after 8 1/2 years and 2 years after a patch was submitted. The reason for finally fixing it was because Virtual Editor thought newlines should actually work like newlines. Silly VE. Does VE think newlines should actually work in ref tags? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormons, ref 110 uses a newline. Newlines also don't work in Image/File brackets. Does VE think newlines should actually work there too? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_momentum, second to last image is an example.
bgwhite: Not sure if the VisualEditor codebase itself thinks or will answer your questions here. Maybe you want to rephrase for humans.
My mind doesn't always understand itself either. Currently, newlines inside <ref> tags or Image/File brackets are ignored. This was also the case for <blockquote> and various quote templates. Due to Visual Editor's logic, VE was *not* ignoring newlines in <blockquote> or the quote templates. The solution to fix whether newlines should or shouldn't be ignored was bug 6200. 6200 fixed the parser code so newlines are *not* ignored by anyone. The question is, does VE respects newline characters in <ref> and Image/File brackets? I ask the question because: 1) Bug 6200 languished for eight years until the problem showed up in VE 2) If VE is not ignoring the newlines, this too becomes a VE vs parser issue. 3) To show a past precedent of newlines being ignored and the bug being fixed.
