[pmwiki-users] wysiwyg editor for wiki

Chris Cox ccox at airmail.net
Thu Jul 20 16:58:46 CDT 2006


John Rankin wrote:
> On Thursday, 20 July 2006 4:09 PM, Chris Cox <ccox at airmail.net> wrote:
....snip...
>>I'll add my two cents.
>>
>>It can NEVER be WYSIWYG... at best it is WYSIAWYG, but probably,
>>WYSISWYG (A=Almost, S=Sometimes).  There are WAY too many variables
>>that will prevent true WYSIWYG... which means that you will basically
>>end up with something that is a pretty markup editor... not much
>>of a step up from just plain ole markup and unlike pure markup,
>>the exact interpretation of the "pretty editor" markup is undefined
>>and will vary greatly from site to site and possibly (and likely)
>>within a single site.
>>
> I agree, but have failed to convince those who demand a form of 
> WYSIWYG. The Lyx community uses the term WYSIWYM -- what you see 
> is what you Mean. This is a helpful distinction, as it nicely 
> encapsulates the idea that markup defines the structure and 
> semantics of the content. It is also consistent with the approach 
> some XML editors, such as Syntext Serna, have adopted.
> 
> So I suggest that what people are actually wanting is a WYSIWYM
> editor and we think about it in those terms. The WYSIWYG part is
> perhaps restricted to purely stylistic markup, like colours.

Just think... what is bold?  Bold is whatever the custom
style/css says it is on my box, which could change depending
on the context inside of any given wiki, any group, any page,
inside of any page.  Just an example.

This is a much, much, much harder issue UNLESS you make
tons of assumptions or greatly limit (hinder) site customizations.

People who want WYSIWYG need/want a much more limited wiki than
PmWiki.  Or at least a PmWiki with a fixed (unchangeable) style
and possibly a set of procedural rules.

It's like giving someone a black pen and asking them to always
write with that pen... everything goes fine (ok) until somebody
hands them a black sheet of paper.  Then you need a different
pen... and suddenly you realize we've created a bigger problem
than the one we were trying to solve.










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