[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Mediawiki-l] that awful <ref> syntax

[John Lee]

On Dec 12, 2007 11:30 AM, Steven Walling <steven.walling at gmail.com> wrote:
> Um, where else would you put ref syntax and material if not in the edit box?
> The other, secret edit box?  If the editing system is not WSIWG, then people
> should be prepared for plenty of syntax that doesn't show up when you hit
> save. Besides, <ref> syntax doesn't consume that much space if you use it
> correctly and implement <ref name> usage. The full text of a reference
> should only show up once.

I believe the idea is to create another edit box or an overlay with
the complex wikimarkup in it. I have high doubts about the technical
feasibility of the latter proposal, though multiple edit boxes might
be conceivably workable.

<ref>s do consume a lot of space if you're writing a ref-heavy
article. In political articles, where there's always controversy and
sources are often things like news websites, every other sentence may
have a unique ref.

Johnleemk