English Wikipedia @ Freddythechick:Manual of Style/Accessibility/dl tests

Essay on editing Wikipedia

When using MediaWiki parser's built-in description/definition/association list shorthand markup (the ; and : syntax), there cannot be blank lines between any "terms" or "definitions" in the list, or it breaks the list markup.

Contiguous association list in MediaWiki markup

View source to behold the semantic markup.

Term 1
Definition 1A
Definition 1B
Term 2 (UK)
Term 2 (US)
Definition 2
Wiki source

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">

Term 1
Definition 1A
Definition 1B
Term 2 (UK)
Term 2 (US)
Definition 2

</syntaxhighlight>

Resulting HTML

<syntaxhighlight lang="html">

Term 1
Definition 1A
Definition 1B
Term 2 (UK)
Term 2 (US)
Definition 2

</syntaxhighlight>

Association list in MediaWiki markup with blank lines

View source to behold to MW vomit.

Term 1
Definition 1A
Definition 1B
Term 2 (UK)
Term 2 (US)
Definition 2
Wiki source

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">

Term 1
Definition 1A
Definition 1B
Term 2 (UK)
Term 2 (US)
Definition 2

</syntaxhighlight>

Resulting HTML

<syntaxhighlight lang="html">

Term 1
Definition 1A
Definition 1B
Term 2 (UK)
Term 2 (US)
Definition 2

</syntaxhighlight>

This is a semantic HTML and Web accessibility nightmare.

Association list in HTML with blank lines

View source to behold the semantic markup's return

Term 1
Definition 1A
Definition 1B
Term 2 (UK)
Term 2 (US)
Definition 2
Wiki source

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">

Term 1
Definition 1A
Definition 1B
Term 2 (UK)
Term 2 (US)
Definition 2

</syntaxhighlight>

Resulting HTML

<syntaxhighlight lang="html">

Term 1
Definition 1A
Definition 1B
Term 2 (UK)
Term 2 (US)
Definition 2

</syntaxhighlight>