On 15/11/2007, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
No, outputting them at all except when expressly requested will scare the living crap out of people afraid of computers. Wikitext is hardly wonderful in this regard, but error messages will make it much worse.
Not if the people writing to error messages keep in mind who they are for. "ERROR 574B: ''' not expected" will send most users running for the hills, sure, but "Please put ''' where you want the bold text to finish" should just help people learn.
Imagine if you find this error while editing a long article (say any en.wp country article). Is the error going to be smart enough to locate where the wrong symbols are? The edit box doesn't have line numbers. I have to agree with David on this issue.
BTW ''' is valid. ;) It bolds until the end of the line. I find this every time I try to bold two paragraphs:
'''Bold one
bold two'''
Paragraph 1 is all bolded, and Paragraph 2 has nothing.
regards, Brianna