[Mediawiki-l] what-you-see-is-what-you-get edit program?
Con Rodi
conrodi at vt.edu
Mon Mar 14 20:08:26 UTC 2005
My user base ranges from wiki-experts to computer novices. The novices
are usually unable to grasp the idea of a markup language and give up
before making contributions. On the other hand, some of my
wiki-experts are frustrated with YAWML--Yet Another Wiki Markup
Language. It's nice to live in one wiki world, but it's not always
possible and the local markup dialects seem unending. Both extremes
and many users in between would benefit from a more direct editing
approach that avoided the markup nature of current wikis. Even a
limited set of capabilities would provide scaffolding for the novice
and a welcome relief to the expert. The current markup can be
available for those who want to add complexity or elegance.
This issue is probably not a MediaWiki issue. Supporting Wikipedia and
family is obviously job #1, and it seems well-served by the current
structure. But there are many of us who have borrowed the MediaWiki
tool (for all it's benefits) and applied it to other contexts. If WE
want different editing capabilities, then WE will probably need to step
up to the plate and make it happen.
Con Rodi
Center for Human-Computer Interaction
Virginia Tech
On Mar 14, 2005, at 1:59 PM, Sterling D. Allan wrote:
> I can see that the sheer number of HTML/Wiki code possibilities used in
> mediawiki would make the WYSIWYG task nearly impossible if one wanted
> to be
> able to enable all possible formatting options. So the "price" one
> will pay
> in going with a WYSIWYG editor would be a narrowing of formatting
> options.
>
> In my case, that is a price that I would be willing to pay because I
> want to
> make it easy for those brilliant scientists who barely know how to
> spell.
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