Why 3 spaces after list bullet?

[hotoo]

* list item

add 2 space use stringify:

-    list item

I just want 1 space after list bullet.

But I can't find any options from https://github.com/wooorm/mdast/blob/master/doc/options.md#list-item-bullets

and I found this in source code:

$ grep -r "'   '" node_modules/mdast
node_modules/mdast/node_modules/concat-stream/node_modules/readable-stream/node_modules/core-util-is/float.patch:-            return '   ' + line;

[wooorm]

The idea here is that tab columns (four characters) have the best support across vendors.
Now, every vendor can parse a simple list, like the example you give, without any problems, but there are compatibility issues when compiling a mixture of block quotes, code blocks, lists, and the like.

When you stick to four-character stops, everything works fine. I try to keep mdast fast when stringifying by only looking at the current node, and not checking edge-case scenarios, and compile differently based on that.

I would like to add that option, but there are cases where other vendors would parse content differently (e.g., as code-blocks), but that’s on the back-burner!

Does that help?

[hotoo]

In README you write:

mdast is not just another markdown to HTML compiler. It can generate, and reformat, markdown too.

Usualy format is for people, not only for vendors, and a lot of peoples write markdown use 1 space after list bullet.

I was write a document check tool for support markdown, it just need find text nodes and change it values. I want keey user habit, not change it.

---

In my case, I want more things like keep user's list bullet, not fixed.

[wooorm]

Well this seems to be going into very philosophical direction, so I'll not respond to what markdown is and isn't, in my opinion 😉.

Regarding what reformat means, in the context there I meant “based on options”, not “based on the current style”. Sorry about that, but that's not mdast's goal, yet.

It's inherent to an AST (abstract syntax tree), that not everything is stored. Therefore, not the (exact) style of the user can be kept.

Therefore, the only thing I can do short-term, is add an option to compile use (1 space), instead of a tab-stop. But I cannot—again, yet—help you with style-detection.

[hotoo]

Think you for the option.

[wooorm]

Thanks for the suggestion. I split this issue, because the first part of your problem is easier/faster to fix, into GH-31 and GH-32.