i said:
>   in z.m.l., anything surrounded by two or more blank lines
>   is a paragraph. 

pardon me.  that's a goof.

anything preceded by _one_ or more blank lines
is considered to be a new paragraph in z.m.l.

i sometimes accidentally mix up "blank lines" and
"line-endings".  _two_ consecutive line-endings
(i.e., _one_ blank line) delineates a new paragraph.

two blank lines constitutes a "thought break".

three or more blank lines constitutes a new section.
(three is more like a "subsection", while four marks
the lowest-level section, five the next-lowest, etc.)


>   In z.m.l., anything surrounded by
>   two or more blank lines is structured text.

wait a minute!  _i_ make the rules for z.m.l., not you.     :+)


>   When you can recognize a paragraph,

i can recognize a paragraph.
i just explained how, up above.


>   and distinquish it from a title

"distinquish" is a nice word.  what does it mean?
to distinguish and then squish?          :+)

i can recognize a title too, and thus "distinguish" it.
i just explained how, up above.


>   or a block quotation inside of a paragraph,

what's so hard about that?

it's very easy to recognize the block quotation
-- because those things are indented in z.m.l. --
and if the paragraph above it was not terminated,
then the block quote is "inside" of it.

(well, due to how z.m.l. defines "a paragraph",
the block-quote itself is its own "paragraph"...
but there's no need to discuss these semantics.)

at any rate, the z.m.l. viewer-program is happy to
show you a listbox of all the paragraphs in the file,
nicely numbered and everything.  or it will show you
a list of all the words in the file, also nicely numbered.

and at the bottom of each page that it shows you,
it gives the character-numbers and line-numbers
of the range of text on that page.  so an end-user will
have an easy time quantifying exactly where they are.
but you know what?  very few of them ever have a need.


>   no matter how many blank lines surround them

in z.m.l., blank lines are the very thing that _define_
paragraphs -- and titles too.  so i am afraid that z.m.l.
will never "be able to" do what you are asking.  but...


>   then I'll be impressed.

...my goal is to render e-books properly, not impress you.

-bowerbird