[Pmwiki-users] Markup

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Wed, Aug 27, 2003 at 07:13:04PM -0300, Pedro Miller Rabinovitch wrote:
> Correct, in lots of contexts that is the case. However, here we need to 
> convert things from

I'm going to change your example a bit, to demonstrate:

Internal format:

<heading level=1>Pay attention!</heading>
<ordered-list>
  <list-item>Look <strong>both</strong> sides _before_ crossing <link 
type="internal">BusyStreets</link>;</list-item>
  <list-item>Always make <emph>sure</emph> you're *up-to-date* [with the <link 
type="internal">Safety Guide</link>].</list-item>
  <list-item>There are 24 * 60 * 60 == 1440 seconds in a day</list-item>
</ordered-list>

Becomes:

h1:Pay attention!
 
 - Look *both* sides [=_=]before[=_=] crossing [BusyStreets];
 - Always make _sure_ you're [=*=]up-to-date[=*=] [=[=]with the [Safety Guide][=]=].
 - There are 24 [=*=] 60 [=*=] 60 == 1440 seconds in a day

because of the need to escape all of the things that weren't markup
in the original.  And I don't even want to consider what happens with
PmWiki's simple tables or preformatted text areas, where whitespace 
(and thus column/text alignment) are significant in terms of making 
the markup readable.

This isn't a "no", it's just demonstrating some of the difficulty.
Essentially to go from XML to a wiki markup the translator has to
first escape any thing that might be confused for wiki markup, and then
it can replace the xml tags with appropriate markup.  And in the
escaping process we can end up with some pretty ugly markup.

> True. However, I do think this work would clear up the internal markup 
> representation a lot (i.e., the InlineMatches and DoubleBrackets business), 
> actually *helping* people to customize the Wiki markup.

> (in my hierarchy, 'easy' is pretty close to 'possible'. Just one of the many 
> things that have driven to my present closeness to insanity >;) )

Heh.  In the next week or so I hope to finally publish my article wherein
I describe how I determine what features to work on for my various
projects.  :-)

> 
> I know it's a tough cookie. But I think it would push the envelope in the 
> whole wiki-area.

Indeed, it's a very worthy goal and something I'll definitely keep in 
mind as I continue developing things.  :-)

Pm