[Docutils-develop] [docutils:feature-requests] #101 New "doctree" element for hard line breaks.

-1 for backslash at line-end as "hard line break" in reStructuredText. This would not fit nice with

> Escaped whitespace characters are removed from the output document together with the escaping backslash. This allows for character-level inline markup.
— https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html#escaping-mechanism

Rather, I suggest "backslash + newline" as a line continuation syntax for, e.g. wrapping long section titles.

+1 for a representation of hard line breaks in the Docutils Document Model ("doctree") for use in generated content or markup parsers.
Open question:  should we introduce
* a new `<br>` element,
* a "magic" class value like "pre-wrap" (or "line-break"), or
* an "xml:space" attribute for `<inline>` elements.


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**[feature-requests:#101] New "doctree" element for hard line breaks.**

**Status:** pending-moreinfo
**Group:** Default
**Created:** Tue Dec 12, 2023 08:16 PM UTC by Günter Milde
**Last Updated:** Mon Apr 28, 2025 07:25 PM UTC
**Owner:** nobody


Not providing for "hard line break elements" in the Docutils document model and reStructuredText syntax was a deliberate decision at the time these two were devised.

However, times have changed and there are new arguments and use-cases for hard line breaks.
(cf.  the  [comments in #85](https://sourceforge.net/p/docutils/feature-requests/85/#d02b)).
Something like a `<br>` inline node or special handling of `<inline class=line-break>` inline nodes may be considered. The latter would not change the document model and could be implemented at the writer level or via stylesheet rules.

Whether to add a reStructuredText syntax for hard line breaks can be decided independently.
The current rules require a non-white character in a role defined with `.. role:: line-break`.
    



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