Feedback: Create an extension for a "See also" `ul` style

[BillWagner]

The "See Also" section suffers from compromises between using clean markdown and having a clean presentation. We don't really want a visual bulleted list, but our markdown lint tools (and those used by community contributors) remove the extra spaces at the end of lines required to put each link on a separate line.

A great solution would be a style that created a ul list, but did not apply a bulleted style.

See dotnet/docs#6923 for a lengthy discussion.
/cc @mairaw @nemrism @NextTurn @corob-msft

[mairaw]

Tagging @gewarren as well

[gewarren]

Could we also use this style in places where we sometimes put html break tags <br/>, e.g. in table rows?

[gewarren]

Another place we could use it is in some of our reference documentation where we list parameters and below them, their definition. For example, this section is actually currently broken because of the removal of trailing whitespace.

[nschonni]

For example, this section is actually currently broken because of the removal of trailing whitespace.

That one might be better handled by <dl> and <dt> but it looks like CommonMark doesn't currently have a solution for that https://github.com/commonmark/CommonMark/issues/559

[mairaw]

I've been using a \, but it's not ideal:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dotnet/docs/master/docs/framework/additional-apis/system.data.sqltypes.sqlstreamchars.read.md

[gewarren]

That looks nice actually.

[corob-msft]

I was previously unaware of that interpretation of the \ character. I had to look it up in the CommonMark spec. I'm guessing it wouldn't work inside table cells. It depends on a following newline to work, which would break tables.

[nxtn]

Some other occurrences and different solutions currently:

• Double bullets

* [C# Programming Guide](../csharp/programming-guide/index.md)
  * Provides information and practical examples about how to use C# language constructs.

• Double line breaks

* [Visual Studio Samples](/visualstudio/ide/visual-studio-samples)

    Provides information about how you can access online samples.

• Trailing backslash

- [What's new for Visual Basic](whats-new.md)\
Lists new features in each of the versions of Visual Basic .NET.

[nschonni]

Looks like you might have definition lists with Markdig, even if it's not part of CommonMark https://github.com/lunet-io/markdig/blob/master/src/Markdig.Tests/Specs/DefinitionListSpecs.md

[mairaw]

yes @corob-msft, we still use \
inside tables. 😢

[nxtn]

FYI I found links with a comma separated style in the Windows Runtime API docs, which are rendered as bulleted lists.

Github

Docs.ms

[mairaw]

I think they have some unique extensions that don't apply to the regular Markdown content in docs @NextTurn.

[gewarren]

I'm not sure what the eyes emoji is meant to signify, but I'm using it for "surprise" :)

[nemrism]

Which part of this discussion surprise you? 😁

[gewarren]

FYI I found links with a comma separated style in the Windows Runtime API docs, which are rendered as bulleted lists.

Github

Docs.ms

@nemrism This one.

[nemrism]

@NextTurn got tiger eyes