Karl Eichwalder wrote:
Stephen Gilbert
<sgilbert=Ec9gIrrHw6csA/PxXw9srA(a)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.
<snip>
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.