[pmwiki-users] skin design and the searchbox

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Mon, Mar 21, 2005 at 12:37:06PM +0000, Hans wrote:
> But the problem is: if the searchbox gets used this way, and added to
> the sidebar as markup for instance, then skins which don't provide for
> this end up with  a nasty looking big searchbox in the sidebar, on top
> of the one which is built into the skin template. Can this be
> resolved?

It can probably resolve itself over time, as skin designers      
begin to adopt conventions/guidelines about how to do such things.  
However, I'm leery of promulgating them as "rules" or "requirements",
because it's of paramount importance that creating a new skin remain
relatively simple for those who aren't worried about "cross-skin
compatibility".  

> Any thoughts on these matters, including the general idea of providing
> more customisation using special wiki pages?

Well, speaking very generally, PmWikiPhilosophy #2 says that we  
shouldn't try to duplicate everything that can be done in HTML/CSS 
into wiki markup.  One reason for this is that the mapping is often 
incomplete.  If an author still has to be aware of HTML and CSS features
to be able to use the markup, then we're really just adding another
language/syntax to learn, raising the barrier to authors who don't
know the intricacies of HTML/CSS, and we've created more complexity
(and maintenance requirements) in the codebase.

In theory, we could come up with a markup language that would allow
authors to completely customize a skin with wiki pages.  However,
I don't know that we come up with a language that is simultaneously
a substantial improvement over HTML/CSS and removes the need for
knowing HTML/CSS.  If we're just adding another level of 
language/indirection to be learned, I don't think we're actually 
helping much.  But I could be convinced otherwise.

Pm