Bug: Attempting to show BNF defs as code fails to render

If you try to use TWiki to specify data using a BNF style definition, the := in the middle is eaten by TWiki's syntax. Given Wiki's are largely a programmer's tool at present - much more so that plain users this is a big deficiency. Working around by using <tt> tags instead is an unacceptable solution - the pattern should be changed to avoid turning accepted normal BNF into gibberish.

Test case

You type:

   * =sourceline := "? itemvalue "? (' ' attributedefinition)*= <br>
      =attributedefinition := attribute = attributevalue= <br>
      =attribute := [a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z_0-9]*= <br>
      =attributevalue := "[^"]+"= <br>

• sourceline : "? itemvalue "? (' ' attributedefinition)*=
  attributedefinition : attribute = attributevalue=
  attribute : [a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z_0-9]*=
  attributevalue : "[^"]+"=
  

You should get:

• sourceline := "? itemvalue "? (' ' attributedefinition)*
  attributedefinition := attribute = attributevalue
  attribute := [a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z_0-9]*
  attributevalue := "[^"]+"
  

Environment

-- TWikiGuest - 28 Aug 2003

Follow up

This is an esoteric case. If fixed it could have other surprizing side effects. If you want to use BNF you can put it in verbatim tags:

    sourceline := "? itemvalue "? (' ' attributedefinition)* 
    attributedefinition := attribute = attributevalue 
    attribute := [a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z_0-9]* 
    attributevalue := "[^"]+" 

-- PeterThoeny - 28 Sep 2003

Fix record