[pmwiki-users] Embedding (:directive:) inside of (:text_var: ... :)

[The Editor]

On 4/11/07, Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com> wrote:
> Several people have commented that they sometimes want/need
> to place directives inside of hidden page text variables -- i.e.,
> to do something like:
>
>     (:myvar: (:pagelist:) :)
>
> such that $:myvar returns a value of "(:pagelist:)".  Of
> course, this doesn't work at present because the "(:...:)"'s
> don't nest, so that the (:pagelist:) directive has the effect
> of inadvertently closing off the page text variable.
>
> A couple of days ago I thought of an easy way that we could
> avoid this problem by allowing multiple colons for markers
> on page text variable directives.  Then the above could be
> written as:
>
>     (::myvar: (:pagelist:) ::)
>
> This does the same as (:myvar: ... :), except that the presence
> of "(::" at the beginning of the page text variable requires
> a matching "::)" to close it.  This makes it easier to embed directives
> inside of hidden page text variables.  And it can be generalized to
> handle arbitrary numbers of colons:
>
>     (::::myvar:  I like colons!  ::::)
>
> Other directive markups that potentially have embedded
> directives might also be able to use the multiple-colon approach.
>
> I personally don't have any use or need for this, but it
> did occur to me and so I thought I'd mention it in case
> there are a lot of others who could use it.  Implementing it
> would be a minor change to the page text variables code.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Pm


Pm, I would like this!  It would save me from having to use {( )} in
text vars and then convert them back to directives.  Plus it makes it
easier--as I can test live code, then just cut and paste it into the
directive.  I think it would be great!

Thanks!

Cheers,
Dan