[Wikipedia-l] Re: Parsing

[Toby Bartels]

Tarquin wrote:

>Toby Bartels wrote:

>>The question isn't how easy "'''" is to learn.
>>The question is how easy "<b>" is to learn.
>>The answer to that is, it's pretty darned easy;
>>therefore, since people will try it, it should be allowed.
>>If having two ways to write the same thing is bad,
>>then honestly "'''" should go before "<b>" does.

>>(Note the "if"; I think that "'''" is great -- easier to type.
>>In fact, it should actually be rendered as <strong>,
>>which is even harder to type but is almost always more correct.)

>Or <em> maybe?

''' = <strong>, '' = <em>.

>Many people comne to wikipedia completely ignorant of HTML. Many people
>on the net don't even know what HMTL is -- really! Some of them are my
>friends! Many people *with websites* use Dreamweaver or some such and
>have no idea what <b> means.

I don't see the relevance of that.
It's not like they know what ''' means either before they arrive.
Surely *more* people will know <b> than ''' before coming here,
and most of these people won't be ace programmers either.

>I think the most important point is that wiki must be easily readable in
>both raw & rendered formats. The eye skims over ''' very easily, whereas
><b> and </b> arrest the flow.

This I think *is* relevant.
Since I don't believe that we need only one method for every purpose,
I would keep both <b> and ''' but still prefer '''
(barring making a distinction between them as suggested below).

>I would hesitate before [removing support for] <b> and <i> in wiki markup, but I
>change those to the equivalent ' whenever I see them, and I don't think
>they should be encouraged.

I do the same changes myself, except in very special cases
where <b> is actually more appropriate than <strong>.
Then one day when I convince y'all to render ''' as <strong> instead of <b>,
then everything will be perfect!
I'm not about to get upset if you change by <b> to ''', however,
and could be convinced to follow your lead exactly if you work at it;
I'll only get upset if you mess with <var>, as explained in another post
(not yet made, or look on Jan's page).


-- Toby Bartels
   <toby+wikipedia-l at math.ucr.edu>