On Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:20:51 +0100, Platonides wrote:
Also note, doing little plaintext changes expose the
users to the
syntax, so they would be slowly getting more familiar with it.
Yes, visual editor is really useful only for totally "technically
disabled" users. At long last, most of the internet users successfully
use BBCode on the forums - why they can't use wikitext?..
If big changes can only be done with plaintext,
there's something
wrong
in your Visual Editor.
I mean plaintext is always more convenient for doing something big.
For example, it's just faster to enter '''text''' instead of
mouse-clicking [B], then switching back to keyboard, entering "text" and
again clicking [B]. If you have keyboard shortcuts, then it will be
Ctrl-B text Ctrl-B, which is not easier than entering '''text'''
but
involves switching between some modes (bold/not bold).
Visual editor may be usable and may have cool features (for example,
inplace editing), but I'm sure there is a lot more implementation issues
and usability problems with it than with plain text. If I were MW, I
would keep being simple, but if MW want to experiment - again, PLEASE
experiment CAREFULLY...