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.