Reference links / label vs title

Reference links / label vs title

[JM Marcastel]

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*SUGGESTION*

When a title is given in a reference link, display the title in lieu of the 
label in rendered text.

If rejected as a standard behaviour, then could this be a CLI option?

*EXAMPLE*

[mylabel]: https://example.com "Some title"  {.external}

Output Some title <https://example.com> rather than my label 
<https://example.com>.

*MOTIVATION*

Reference links allow for reusability of links. The denomination (or title) 
associated with the link differs from one context to another. A typical 
example is when referencing multiple URLs that pertain to a same subject. 
Giving a consistent naming convention, that provides both a visually 
pleasant and compliant to regular writing conventions in whatever language 
your Markdown text is written, can be quite challenging.

As an example, I often keep track of software I am interested in. I have, 
within a same Markdown document, a table where I keep track of home pages, 
GitHub repository, latest release, etc. Elsewhere is the Markdown document 
I may discuss a given software, sometimes referring to its home page, and 
sometimes referring to its GitHub repository. Take the example of Pandoc:

[pandoc-ws]: https://pandoc.org "Pandoc"
[pandoc-gh]: https://github.com/jgm/pandoc "Pandoc"


Displaying pandoc-gb <http://#> and pandow-ws <http://#> in my tables and 
in the body of my text is clumsy. Using variations like *Pandoc (homepage)* and 
*Pandoc (github)* remains clumsy. Redefining the reference link is even 
more clumsy; reference links are here for reuse not redefinition. With the 
proposed approach I can consistently say Pandoc <http://pandoc-ws> for 
Pandoc's website or Pandoc <http://pandoc-gh> for Pandoc's GitHub 
repository depending of the context in which I am.
 
Implementing an even more flexible solution where the title can be assigned 
at each invocation of the reference link would be ideal. But that probably 
has deeper repercussions on the Markdown syntax.


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Re: Reference links / label vs title

[Daniel Staal]

On 2/4/18 11:40 PM, JM Marcastel wrote:
> Reference links allow for reusability of links. The denomination (or 
> title) associated with the link differs from one context to another. A 
> typical example is when referencing multiple URLs that pertain to a same 
> subject. Giving a consistent naming convention, that provides both a 
> visually pleasant and compliant to regular writing conventions in 
> whatever language your Markdown text is written, can be quite challenging.
> 
> As an example, I often keep track of software I am interested in. I 
> have, within a same Markdown document, a table where I keep track of 
> home pages, GitHub repository, latest release, etc. Elsewhere is the 
> Markdown document I may discuss a given software, sometimes referring to 
> its home page, and sometimes referring to its GitHub repository. Take 
> the example of Pandoc:
> 
> |
> [pandoc-ws]:https://pandoc.org "Pandoc"
> [pandoc-gh]:https://github.com/jgm/pandoc "Pandoc"
> |
> 
> 
> Displaying pandoc-gb <http://#> and pandow-ws <http://#> in my tables 
> and in the body of my text is clumsy. Using variations like /Pandoc 
> (homepage)/ and /Pandoc (github)/ remains clumsy. Redefining the 
> reference link is even more clumsy; reference links are here for reuse 
> not redefinition. With the proposed approach I can consistently say 
> Pandoc <http://pandoc-ws> for Pandoc's website or Pandoc 
> <http://pandoc-gh> for Pandoc's GitHub repository depending of the 
> context in which I am.

Two things: First off, this proposal conflicts with the main purpose of 
link titles, which is to provide hover-text for languages like HTML. 
Having it replace the main text would compromise that.

Secondly, do explicit reference links not work for you?  For your 
example, you should be able to say: [Pandoc][pandoc-ws] or 
[Pandoc][pandoc-gh] as appropriate to refer to each link as needed, with 
whatever text is appropriate.  (Instead of embedding that text in some 
random other place in the document.)

Daniel T. Staal

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