Allowing a starting line in a code tag is supposed to make it easy to intermix descriptions with code, while keeping line numbers continuous across code blocks. However, this makes it hard for authors to revise their submissions (either during an edit/preview cycle, or later). If I decide to add a comment to a code example, I would need to manually adjust some number of startline attributes in subsequent code tags. Being an error-prone human, I'm liable to miss one, or get the counts wrong. Instead, I'd rather declare a code block to be a continuation of a previous code block, and leave the line counting to the underlying formatting engine.
<code>
my $widget;
...
</code>

Explanation of the first block.

<code continue>
sub foo {
    ...
}
</code>

Explanation of the second block.
knobunc describes a more elaborate version of this here.


In reply to (dws)Re: suggestion : change to code tag by dws
in thread suggestion : change to code tag by boo_radley

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



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.