My thought on this was that it should optionally use similar syntax to tables, like so:
{# # Item one
Can be arbitrarily long
<pre>Lots of weird stuff in here</pre>
# Only now do we get to item two, in the same list # Etc. #}
Brion has, I believe, vetoed all of the suggestions made here, when they have been made before at various points. The correct solution for now is to just use HTML lists:
<ol> <li>Item one
Can be arbitrarily long
<pre>Lots of weird stuff in here</pre> <li>Only now do we get to item two, in the same list <li>Etc. </ol>
(The closing </li> is not necessary, the software adds it automatically. Note that extra <div>s might be necessary until bug 6200 is fixed: http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6200 )