[WikiEN-l] simplicity of markup and presentation

[Geoff Burling]

On Wed, 3 Sep 2003, tarquin wrote:

> A while ago some bright spark thought to put a DIV around the statement
> of maths theorems, with a dashed purple border.
> Today it's boxes with coloured borders for disambiguation notes.
>
> Here's why these are bad ideas:
>
> Firstly, Wikipedia is a wiki. That means source text should be as light
> on markup as possible. Knowing HTML should not be a prerequisite. We
> currently have HTML for tables and floated images -- this is something
> to be dealt with, not taken as a springboard for more.

In technical terms, using HTML is a hack; in non-technical terms, HTML
is the equivalent of making something work with duct tape, chewing gum
or an unbent paperclip.

If that's a fair paraphrase, I agree. Actually, after a brief period of
ignorance, I've always held that HTML should focus more on presenting
the material, not in producing flashy tricks of presentation. (Or so I
say now, having abused the <br> tag on a few pages full of lists.)

But the problem isn't people like me, it's those folks who discover that
you pull off certain tricks by embedding HTML in a Wiki page, then go
wild doing just that. The problems of education just keep coming back
to haunt us.

Geoff