[Wikipedia-l] Re: Parsing

[Toby Bartels]

Jan Hidders raved (I assume he meant "ranted"):

>Jimmy Wales wrote:

>>For example, many many many people, not just programmers, understand
>>how to make html <b>bold</b> and <i>italics</i>.  Those are intuitive
>>and harmless.  The original Ward Cunningham wiki solution of ' and ''
>>and ''' for different things, well, that was never very intuitive and
>>newcomers didn't know about it.

>Oh, come on! How long does it take for newcomers to grasp what '' and
>''' means? I agree that in itself there is nothing wrong with <b> and <i>
>although I personally think they are slightly less easier to read then the
>WikiWiki notation and I think it is always better to simply have one notation
>for every mark-up.

The question isn't how easy "'''" is to learn.
The question is how easy "<b>" is to learn.
The answer to that is, it's pretty darned easy;
therefore, since people will try it, it should be allowed.
If having two ways to write the same thing is bad,
then honestly "'''" should go before "<b>" does.

(Note the "if"; I think that "'''" is great -- easier to type.
In fact, it should actually be rendered as <strong>,
which is even harder to type but is almost always more correct.)


-- Toby Bartels
   <toby+wikipedia-l at math.ucr.edu>