[Pmwiki-users] Experimental: Using '\\' as alternative to [[<<]]

[Patrick R. Michaud]

Based on Christian Ridderstr?m's excellent suggestion, I've currently
got an implementation of '\\' to mean "line break" running on
the beta site--so far I really like it.  You can test it online at 
http://www.pmichaud.com/work/beta/pmwiki.php/Main/WikiSandbox .

To summarize--as before, any markup line ending with '\' has the
following line joined to it.  But with this new addition, each additional
backslash at the end of the line also produces a line break sequence (<br /> 
for the HTML-inclined).  Thus, '\\' at the end of the line is a forced 
line break, '\\\' produces two line breaks (a blank line), '\\\\' 
produces three line breaks (two blank lines), etc.

Thus the markup

    :: :The highest sounds are hardest to hear. \\
    Going forward is a way to retreat. \\
    Great talent shows itself late in life. \\
    Even a perfect program still has bugs.

produces

        The highest sounds are hardest to hear. 
        Going forward is a way to retreat. 
        Great talent shows itself late in life. 
        Even a perfect program still has bugs.

and not 

        The highest sounds are hardest to hear.  Going forward 
        is a way to retreat.  Great talent shows itself late 
        in life.  Even a perfect program still has bugs.

I'm still working on options and features that will enable PmWiki
to optionally treat all newlines as linebreaks.  The [[<<]] markup
still exists, and can be used when breaks with 'clear=all' are needed.

Comments, experiments, and bug-testing on the new feature
greatly welcomed.  (Remember, \\ is currently only available on
the beta site.)

Pm