Brian wrote:
On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 12:30 PM, Trevor Parscal
wrote:
* The topic is supposed to be on Template
Editing which is, at least
in the way it's being proposed, a little less of a stale topic -
so where is all the energy on that front? We have an XML format to
design and complex problems to sort out. Help is really needed.
Let's all take a look at the link provided at the beginning of
this thread
http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template_forms
- Trevor
I do think that sufficient energy has been directed at this topic. People
have complained that xml is harder to edit that wikitext and that it is too
complicated, among other things.
I think this is an important point.
XML is hard to edit. That's the reason wikitext was created, to "fix"
the issues with the, even easier, html.
Now, it is being proposed to add a XML processing on top of wikitext to
describe templates.
Those descriptions will have to be edited by the same user base that
edit all other pages. Even if they are power users, it's not easy to
write correct XML on the wiki textarea. We would need to create an
editor for the language being created so a template editor can be made.
Look at
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_participation/Task_force_applic…
It is a form definition, but the fields were defined like
* Name [SMALL TEXT FIELD]
* Email [SMALL TEXT FIELD]
It doesn't have a formal definition and is thus ambiguous, but it's an
example on how to make an user-friendly forms.
I advocate for a simpler syntax for form definition (but we shouldn't on
the way reinvent wikitext).
What about creating a <documentation> tag extension, with the elements
defined as a list?
It would implicitely be <noinclude>
If there're several instances, they are equivalent as one instance whose
content is the concatenation of all of them (so parameters can be
documented inline).
For the example template, we could have:
<documentation>
*Author: Person who made the work.
Anonymous works not allowed.
*License: License under which the work can be used.
The license must be determined by the copyright holder, if in doubt, ask
on the [[WP:Village Pump|]].
</documentation>
We have two parameters: Author and License, with a short description
suitable as a caption, and a longer description available. Both fields
can allow wikitext (except list items for obvious reasons).
The syntax is simple to understand, and even with no special software,
it can be consulted by anyone.
Now we add parameters and form typing:
<documentation>
*Author:[TEXT] Person who made the work.
Anonymous works not allowed.
*License:{GFDL|CC-BY-SA}[Dropdown] License under which the work can be used.
The license must be determined by the copyright holder, if in doubt, ask
on the [[WP:Village Pump|]].
*Restrictions:[TEXTAREA] Additional restrictions imposed by the author.
</documentation>
As expected, it gets a bit uglier, but it's still straightforward.