James, thank you much for your detailed response!
Regarding the <code> tag not being visible in the VE menu:
Yeah, this is something I'm not totally sold on how we can solve. Giving immediate access to all 20+ text styling options wouldn't be so great (overwhelming, and encouraging people to use rarely-used and indeed rarely-appropriate but valid options like <mark> or others...
May I suggest putting the set of visible styles into the hands of the wiki administrator, through a simple configuration variable? Some prominent wikis, like mediawiki.org, would benefit from having the <code> style visible above the "More" element, while others like Wikipedia might not need <code> much.
"I didn't see the editing tools at first because they're white on a white background."
>One of the key design objectives of the VE project has been, since the
start, moving towards making editing a simple and easy and as close as possible to reading...
Our workaround has been to set the tools' background color to #F0F0F0, very close to white but slightly contrasting. After all, you do want the reader to know that any tools appeared at all....
After the rollout of VE at my company, we'll provide feedback through the channels you suggested. Thanks again. DanB