Tarquin wrote:
Toby Bartels wrote:
>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.)
Or <em> maybe?
''' = <strong>, '' = <em>.
Many people comne to wikipedia completely ignorant of
HTML. Many people
on the net don't even know what HMTL is -- really! Some of them are my
friends! Many people *with websites* use Dreamweaver or some such and
have no idea what <b> means.
I don't see the relevance of that.
It's not like they know what ''' means either before they arrive.
Surely *more* people will know <b> than ''' before coming here,
and most of these people won't be ace programmers either.
I think the most important point is that wiki must be
easily readable in
both raw & rendered formats. The eye skims over ''' very easily, whereas
<b> and </b> arrest the flow.
This I think *is* relevant.
Since I don't believe that we need only one method for every purpose,
I would keep both <b> and ''' but still prefer '''
(barring making a distinction between them as suggested below).
I would hesitate before [removing support for]
<b> and <i> in wiki markup, but I
change those to the equivalent ' whenever I see them, and I don't think
they should be encouraged.
I do the same changes myself, except in very special cases
where <b> is actually more appropriate than <strong>.
Then one day when I convince y'all to render ''' as <strong> instead
of <b>,
then everything will be perfect!
I'm not about to get upset if you change by <b> to ''', however,
and could be convinced to follow your lead exactly if you work at it;
I'll only get upset if you mess with <var>, as explained in another post
(not yet made, or look on Jan's page).
-- Toby Bartels
<toby+wikipedia-l(a)math.ucr.edu>