Wikimedia Bugzilla is closed!

Creating lists were list items include code listing, images,
etc. is very frustrating in all wikis that I tried. List numbering, indentation etc 
break. Unnumbered paragraphs cannot be easily added in the middle of a numbered list, 
etc.

You can check several bugs filed for this issue at the mediawiki
website, for example this one:  http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1581
Various plugins, patches, etc. are just workarounds or hacks. 

Here is a suggested solution: LET ME EXPLICITLY START AND TERMINATE LISTS.

A list could be started with #( and terminated with )#. 

The #( string should be translated to <OL><LI>; )# should terminate the list with </OL>.

List items should be entered as usual, with a hash #.

A similar extension should be used for bulleted lists, i.e. *( and )*.

Note that such markup should be fairly easy to parse. It also does not conflict with 
existing pages. Both types of lists styles can co-exist in one document! Editors can 
continue to use # or * for simple lists and #( )# or *( )* for more complex layouts.