------------ Původní zpráva ------------
Od: Aryeh Gregor <Simetrical+wikilist(a)gmail.com>
Předmět: Re: [Wikitech-l] Anchors haven't id attribute
Datum: 28.12.2008 01:07:08
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On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 3:14 PM, Brion Vibber <brion(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
[snip]
Maybe we should just fix the normalization function the way we'd already
planned to, so that it'll work right the way we'd already planned to?
Done in r45109. I notice, by the way, that HTML5 allows any string
not containing whitespace for id's . . . yet another case where it
clearly wins the "don't gratuitously cause pain to developers"
contest.
*sigh*
Why do we have to hunt for some other solution when we have fully working, fully valid and
fully intuitive one?
OK, let's make some summary about three versions we have:
Terms used:
- old version - the for-many-years used version until r44896
- mid version - r44896 way
- new version - r45109 way
Old version was used for many years. It was fully valid - ids were only there where they
could have been copied from name AND comply to the regexp mentioned in previous posts. It
has been done automatically by Tidy. And it was fully intuitive - you just wrote [[#Foo]]
and it linked to section named Foo. Or you've added #Foo in URL in address bar and you
got to the proper section as well. And it was fully working properly.
The mid version brought the "feature" that all name attributes have been
duplicated to ids. That caused massive invalidity of pages, especially non-latin and
non-ASCII. However, the intuitivity of anchors creation has still been kept.
The new version prepends x to all anchors to solve the problem which was spread here in
mid version - the massive invalidity of pages. So it solved one problem (which actually
didn't have to be solved if we kept the old version) but brought at least two major
other:
First major problem is, that this change is breaking millions of existing links to
sections. Links used on pages on wikis, links used on external sites, links in
people's bookmarks, in emails, forum threads etc. Well, OK, let's discount all
external stuff, since we don't have any influence on it, but we still have millions of
links left on our own wikis which won't work anymore since r45109.
The other major problem is, that since this point further the anchor links are no longer
intuitive - we are now pushing people to constantly think about prepending x when creating
anchor links. No more simple copy pasting of the headline.
As a side effect we are now adding unnecessary work to people from non-latin wikis by
pushing them to always switch to latin keyboard, or to click on edittools or whatever just
to get the one "x" character in editbox to create the anchor link.
So let me summarize in points:
* First we did not have any problem at all.
* Second we had one problem.
* Third we "solved" the problem but created at least two new.
I am pretty scared what's coming next... :-/
One question for the end: What is the benefit of either mid or new version over the old
one - what new functionality or feature it brings or which existing bug it fixes?
Kind regards
Danny B.