Karl Eichwalder wrote:
Stephen Gilbert sgilbert=Ec9gIrrHw6csA/PxXw9srA@public.gmane.org writes:
I don't think we want to force every contributor to learn SGML or XML. Our list of Wikipedians would shrink rather dramatically.
You cannot prove that claim.
No, I can't, nor do I wish to try it and be proved right. :)
HTML is SGML and there are quite some HTML writers. Using SGML is easy. They can separate paragraphs by <p> and they are done. More advanced users can use more tags.
"Easy" and "difficult" are subjective. What happens when a beginner comes across an article written by an advanced user?
The main point is that it raises the bar for participation. Yu could no longer just drop by and make edits; you would first have to learn about the markup language before doing anything. As it stands, you don't have to know about the wiki syntax to do most things.
_Many_ editors isn't a good thing per se; we should rather go for _good_ editors.
Being able to use a markup language doesn't make you a good encyclopedia contributor. Being knowledgable about what you're writing is key.
He orginally wrote it to export wiki documents, but he found it also was much easier to write new documents in wiki syntax and convert them rather than starting with straight DocBook.
It isn't easier, but he is lazy ;) And he obviously enjoys using a cryptic markup language. Cf. my User page. Aditionally, you will never know whether wikipedia software accepts your HTML elements or not.
He finds it easier, and he doesn't find our wiki syntax cryptic. "Easy" and "difficult" are subjective.
In theory, wiki syntax may be "cryptic". In practice, people from varied backgrounds, many non-technical, find writing articles with it easy.
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If someone is seriously interested in uniformity, he should vote for SGML/XML; ignoring using a proper markup language is just a waste of human resources: without a DTD we are force to edit or adjust articles again and again.
I think that if Wikipedia ever puts out a "stable" version for distribution, the articles should be structured with XML. That's a job for dedicated editors with a good knowledge of document structure. Forcing it on the live wiki would, in my unproven opinion, by harmful.
- Stephen G.