[Foundation-l] Why is the software out of reach of the community?

[Erik Moeller]

2009/1/9 Brian <Brian.Mingus at colorado.edu>:
> In order to solve usability, even for new users, I believe that you must
> write a new parser from scratch.

I disagree, though the project team may ultimately agree with you. The
biggest barriers to entry for new users aren't likely to be obscure
edge cases involving apostrophes; they're likely to be ugly blocks of
syntax such as references, templates and magic words interspersed with
article text. Those issues can be addressed without necessarily
rewriting (or speccing out) the whole parser. It does seem that
parser/syntax deficiencies become more relevant if we want to employ a
two-way WYSIWYG/wiki-text model like the one that's currently being
tested on some Wikia sites (e.g. twilightsaga.wikia.com).
-- 
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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