[pmwiki-users] leading spaces switch for 2.2.0 (somewhat important)

Ben Wilson dausha at gmail.com
Tue Mar 27 08:05:46 CDT 2007


On 3/27/07, Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 26, 2007 at 08:55:27PM -0400, Ben Wilson wrote:
> [...]
> > However, using <code> allows web designers to style that block
> > differently than <pre> blocks.
>
> Somehow I think I'd prefer to see this done using classes -- i.e., something
> like <pre class='code'>...</pre> instead of <pre><code>...</code></pre>.
>

I'm looking at this being a feature of standardization. Remember, I'm
rather authoritarian with a web site; unified style for multiple
authors. Having it as style means its use is optional at the web-site
level for each code block. Having it as a markup ensures that all code
blocks are created equal, and reduces the amount of typing, typos and
forgetting to add a block. Having the %style% option allows for
special cases, but I think a site should generally approach each type
of situation uniformly and require additional effort to handle the
special case.

I see markup as shorthand for rendering HTML/CSS. Requiring embedding
CSS for each "standard" code block screams (to me, at least) a need
for shorthand. Not all authors are technologically savvy, so giving
them the shorthand and managing them allows them to focus on content,
not presentation. Heck, this is even true when they are savvy, but are
in a rush.

Perhaps we're both approaching this from two philosophical views. I
recall that PmWiki was originally used in a distributed environment:
each different group was for a different student, or something like
that. I should think having a more open view works better in that
situation. I tend to use wikis in more tightly controlled
environments, and I'm a bit of a control freak.

However, in the end, the greatest strength for PmWiki is its
adaptability. Even if you were to leave the markup as is, nothing
prevents me from DisableMarkup();. I have a set of wiki sites on the
same server, and all call to a standard configuration so they all act
the same, and I can customize <pre> and <pre><code> to my heart's
content regardless of the standard implementation. But, there's no
harm in advocating one's view during transition. :-)

-- 
Ben Wilson
"Words are the only thing which will last forever" Churchill



More information about the pmwiki-users mailing list