Earlier: "...it would help to use syntax coloring (when in edit mode) to make the [wikimarkup] tags, and what's contained in them be another color..."
Doh - so simple!
I vote for this ... until we have a true, backward compatible IPE-WYSIWYG = In Place Editing, not in a subsequent window, What You See Is What You Get, in other words, click and start editing IN PLACE anything you see on a wiki page.
The color idea is probably still not section 508 compliant (see http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=content&ID=12 and so on), but it would be a super simple aid to novice - and well practices - editors, nonetheless!
I have NO INTEREST in users being able to edit "in place" on the same page. No problem with a SWYSIWYG interface, but at the very LEAST the user should be doing so on a page which is separate from the presented html, such as through the present use of the Edit link.
Peter.Monahon@USPTO.GOV wrote:
vote for this ... until we have a true, backward compatible IPE-WYSIWYG = In Place Editing, not in a subsequent window, What You See Is What You Get, in other words, click and start editing IN PLACE anything you see on a wiki page.
I don't know what is the best solution, but the thread-starter is absolutely correct that the current <ref> syntax horrible clutters up edit pages - it must look a NIGHTMARE for anyone vaguely new trying to edit. We really must think of a way to fix this.
To avoid breaking current pages, we'd have to introduce a new shorthand for referencing, so that the old way still works. However, to do this we'd effectively have to alter the parser, but then the <ref> tags are an extension - and the parser can hardly define syntax that you can only use if you have a particular extension. The reference extension would have to be incorporated into the MediaWiki core and no longer be an extension, before we can associate non-extension markup with it.
Which is actually a pretty good idea.
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