[pmwiki-users] Supporting different modes in default pmwiki

[Radu]

Extended proposal for views: read below past the Word banter.

If these ideas are well received, I'll add them to
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/ModesConcept

At 08:41 PM 8/8/2005, Neil Herber wrote:
>The Word toolbars are not a substitute for or a mimic of the menus. 
>They seem to hold quite different sets of tools. It frustrates me no 
>end looking for a menu item when it turns out to be the third tool 
>on the "X" toolbar. At least the idiot paper clip character lets me 
>find what I want most times.

Weird. Maybe we're using different versions. Word 2000 (menu 
Options:Configure) lets me edit existing toolbars (or create spankin' 
new ones), and drag onto it any Word function, whether it's in the 
menus or not. Then I can place it wherever I want. And the views it 
has (normal,layout,print,outline,(even web)) are tuned for specific 
purposes, and they do add/remove toolbars when activated. I even 
think that newer versions allow you to modify the menus too (not sure 
about this, though). Word (and the Open Office tools) have a lot of 
functionality to make people more efficient in their work, but most 
people I saw working whith them just use them as glorified Wordpads :(

And as I said, I would like a bit more integration of these many 
tools (editable views that is), and software that's less bloated. I'd 
like to keep active only the features I need at any given time. 
Pmwiki already does the second part and it seems it's going to get 
better at it, and the first part is possible through smart skins.

>However, this does highlight a big difference between Word and 
>PmWiki - Word is crammed full of tools that different people have 
>varying uses for. PmWiki has very few analogs of tools, other than 
>the edit, history, etc. buttons. The devilish complexity in PmWiki 
>is buried in the markup, and the only real "tools" that help with 
>that task are the GUI edit buttons.

I beg to differ. There's a lot of potential complexity in pmwiki if 
you consider all recipes available, as well as presently unavailable, 
but potentially useful recipes. I would like to be able to have:

* display view (AFAICT most people agree with this one)

* various add-on functions for the author view (calendar, calculator, 
schedule bar, To-Do list...)
* blog view
* an export bar (with saved options for sets of page compilation and 
typesetting rules) for:
** plain text
** HTML
** PDF

* different edit views and edit addons (section edit by itself won't 
allow me to move text among sections, so I'll have both section edit 
-when I get to it or when it becomes available- and page edit)
* view/toolbars for editing:
** schedules/To-Do lists
** tables
** drawings
** equations
** help (would include the EditQuickReference that's currently 
ignored- at least by the people on my test wiki)

* an admin view (if not several), with specialized bars for easier 
navigation to admin pages and other nooks where the authors should 
not poke their noses (including the pages used to maintain/edit the 
toolbars and views)

* we already have print view (it could either unclutter the action= 
processing and be switched to view=, or view= values could be added to action=)

...plus several of the things already mentioned on
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/ModesConcept

There are many other places where views would come in handy, and more 
may surface as we work through this, but you're right, it's not 
something the average author/admin would need. And Pm is right, it's 
a headache for basic admins to maintain templates for such a thing.

You could agree though, that the few of us who find the idea of views 
appealing can continue working on it, right? ;)

>This just reinforces my conviction that there are not enough "views" 
>of PmWiki to make it worth having a view switching mechanism. Things 
>like Group Headers and conditional markup let admins customize pages 
>(or views of the same page) already.

I know this is not a core feature. The recipe (adding a view variable 
to GET and SESSION or extending the processing of action=) is not 
very difficult. What's tough to do are the templates - layout, as 
always is a tough cookie. But PmWiki makes it better manageable with 
its quick testing cycle.


Cheers,
Radu
(www.monicsoft.net)