My code contains POD to provide first-level documentation (higher-level is in tech documents under text processor).

For instance, I use =over, =item 1 ..., =back to describe arguments to functions.

Sometimes, I insert notes or remarks about what could be otherwise difficult to understand at first sight. My structure is:

Notes: =over =item Text of the note =back

Please note that the =item stuff is empty because, in this case, I don't like the default bold rendering of the "title" item line.

This POD is translated into HTML through pod2html. Browsers display it as intended.

Now I want these HTML pages to look like the rest of the web site, i.e. I want to add headers, fancy titles and footers, plus various links. This is a sugar job for XML::Parser. But it complains about mismatched tags.

I have traced it back to my empty =item line which is translated as a single <dt> without closing </dt> tag.

Translation is correct when =item stuff is not empty.

Is my =item usage forbidden by POD rules?

Can this be corrected in pod2html?

In the meantime, how can I workaround this shortcoming?

Thanks for the tips.


In reply to POD translation to HTML bug? by ajl52

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



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