[Pmwiki-users] new link markup format? [[link] text]
Wayne Lee
wl.pmwiki
Sat May 8 14:39:38 CDT 2004
On May 8, 2004, at 11:29 AM, Patrick R. Michaud wrote:
> On Sat, May 08, 2004 at 10:16:11AM -0700, Wayne Lee wrote:
>> It might be too late in the game here,
>> but I'd like to suggest an alternative
>> markup for links. I stumbled upon this
>> idea while researching wiki markups:
>>
>> [[LinkName] alternative text]
>
> I like it a *lot*, but it really conflicts with PmWiki's existing
> markup and pages. Consider [[spacewikiwords]], [[nogroupheader]],
> [[nogroupfooter]], as well as [[WikiWord link]].
Yes, It would not be backwards compatible.
Some things would have to change, but
I think it is very do-able.
By prohibiting SpecialMarkup tag names
as Wiki page names and by not allowing
the [[WikiWord link]] markup, I've been
able to get most of the functionality working
using DoubleBrackets alone. Again, PmWiki's
extensibility is *excellent*! I'll post that after
the wrinkles are ironed out.
> So, alas, it may indeed be "too late in the game". But I am very
> interested in adopting a markup along these lines--especially if it
> ever becomes a part of a unified standard for wiki links. (Side
> question: is Wikipedia or other wikis considering/using anything
> like this?)
Did some more research.
Some folks are attempting to standardize on a Wiki
Markup, but nothing official. Might be awhile before
anything real happens.
<http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?WikiMarkupStandard>
I looked at a couple other Wikis (UseMod, TWiki,
PhpWiki, WikkiTikkiTavi, and MediaWiki). None
use this method for free links and alternative text.
Those other engines use these:
[[link | alternative text]]
((link | alternative text))
[alternative text | link]
BTW, this is where I first learned about this syntax:
<http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CamelVsNonCamel>
> We *can* create this markup with curly braces instead of
> square brackets and not result in hardly any conflicts to PmWiki's
> existing
> markup. I just fear that getting the installed PmWiki base to switch
> the link syntax may be too much to swallow. (However, if such a
> change were to occur, we'd certainly provide tools to automatically
> convert existing pages to the new markups.)
I'd vote against mixing brackets with curly
braces. Stick to one. Keep it simple.
Also, I had a couple of typos, so I'll post
the markups below again.
Thanks,
Wayne
----
Markup (input) Link Text (output)
-------------- ------------------
Normal WikiLink (links to WikiPage)
WikiPage => WikiPage
[[WikiPage]] => WikiPage
[[WikiPage] link to wiki] => link to wiki
[[WikiPage] ] => [1]
[[wiki page]] => wiki page
[[wiki page]]s => wiki pages
Free Link (links to Wiki)
[[Wiki]] => Wiki
[[Wiki] link to wiki] => link to wiki
[[Wiki] ] => [1]
[[wiki]] => wiki
[[wiki]]s => wikis
URL Link (links to http://google.com)
http://google.com => http://google.com
[[http://google.com]] => google.com
[[http://google.com] google] => google
[[http://google.com] ] => [1]
Attach LInk (links to file called file.txt)
Attach:file.txt => Attach:file.txt
[[Attach:file.txt]] => file.txt
[[Attach:file.txt] file] => file
[[Attach:file.txt] ] => [1]
Attach Link with space (links to file called 'my file.txt')
[[Attach:my file.txt]] => my file.txt
[[Attach:my file.txt] my file] => my file
[[Attach:my file.txt] ] => [1]
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