[pmwiki-users] Input recipe

[Martin Fick]

On Thu, Jun 23, 2005 at 03:42:41PM -0400, Neil Herber wrote:
> At 2005-06-23  09:30 PM +0200, Joachim Durchholz is rumored to have said:
> >>I do wonder though if we should not make the syntax more
> >>'wiki' like, ie even simpler! One simplification would be
> >>to eliminate the directive styling and create a form style,
> >>something like --form element--
> >
> >Sorry to disappoint you, but writing forms should be a rare thing, and I 
> >think it would be better to reserve the simpler markup for the more common 
> >tasks.
> 
> I agree completely with Jo. I would expect form creation to be an admin 
> activity, not something that most authors would do.


  Good point, but as the only admin/author on my site, I
certainly would like it to be simpler. :)  

  Really, you might be right, but when html authoring was
hard, common people didn't write that many pages and wikis
have taken something that many people assumed was rather
simple and made it truely simple resulting I believe in
much greater authorship.  Currently form/CGI authoring is
hard and so web-apps are minimal.  Is that an situation we
are happy with?  I wouldn't estimate the furture potential
uses of something based on the difficulty level today,
especially when talking about making it easier!  

  I can say that at my office Pmwiki went from installation
to full use on my project by everyone within a month, it
was simply that needed and that easy.  No I don't know what
all the need for forms are, but I do envision quite a few
myself.  I think that others will too and hope that pmWiki
can meet their needs when they come looking.

  Maybe we should ask the other question, how many have
come looking already and have not found what the were
looking for?  How many found a series of form building
solutions that were either too simple and specific or too
complicated, and have walked away dissapointed? I admit to
making a rather large assumption that it can be simplified,
but I'm not ready to give up so easily. ;)

  -Martin