On Sep 12, 2008, at 5:29 PM, Jean-Vincent Drean wrote:
Hi XWikiers,
Those last months we've discussed a lot about precise elements of the
new XWiki 2.0 syntax :
- usage of 2 chars for **bold** and [[links]]
- {{macro/}} syntax
- Linebreaks on carriage returns
- Linking to attachments/Insert link to image
- |table| syntax
- styling syntax
- emoticons
So far the idea was to keep the xwiki/2.0 syntax as close as possible
from xwiki/1.0.
IMHO we've reached a point where xwiki/2.0 is so different from
xwiki/1.0 that it could be the occasion to go further and replace our
few radeox leftovers by their widespread equivalent.
That's the first thing I'd like to discuss, do we all agree to make
other substantial modifications to xwiki/2.0 ?
Here's my +1.
+0
Till now we had not really changed the syntax. We've only doubled
special chars so that the parser can recognize them (and thus so that
users don't mistakenly do a bold for ex) and added new syntaxes.
This below means making completely different changes so we won't be
able to say that the XWiki 2.0 syntax is an evolution of the 1.0
syntax. It'll be a completely new syntax. This is ok but we need to
acknowledge that.
Being completely in line with Creole [1] or
WikiSyntaxCommon [2] is
not an option since we've already made some incompatible choices (like
linebreaks on carriage returns) and it would imply a big amount of
work now that the new rendering is approaching a stable state. That's
the reason why this proposal is about 2 basic (and important) wiki
syntax elements, those 2 modifications would make xwiki syntax
familiar to wikiPowerUsers.
1) Usage of // instead of ~~ for italic
Creole rationale : A slash (/) looks like slanted italics, so it is
intuitive and thus easier to remember.
See
http://www.wikicreole.org/wiki/BoldAndItalicsReasoning
Note : on all the keyboard mappings I know slashes are more easily
reachable than ~.
Here's my +1.
+0 for the same reason as above. We're changing a familiar syntax for
users for something new.
2) Usage of equal signs instead of 1./1.1/etc for
Headings
+0 for the same reason as above. We're changing a familiar syntax for
users for something new.
Creole rationale : Using equal signs (=) is the most
popular wiki
header markup. Since there are more equal signs for smaller headers,
subheaders will become more indented making it easier to get a visual
overview from the markup alone.
See
http://www.wikicreole.org/wiki/HeadingsReasoning
Note : We've experienced problems in the past with the 1/1.1 syntax
(bad document section computation, problems with table cells starting
with 1, etc) but those problems are addressed in the new rendering.
Anyway I think users are more likely to unintentionaly start a line
with a 1 than a = (like in "1 is more than 2" in the middle of a
paragraph).
What I personnaly like with this syntax is that it makes sections very
visible when editing a page in wiki mode.
About unclosed titles :
=== Also level 3
=== Also level 3 =
=== Also level 3 ==
a) Don't interpret them
+0.
If by "don't interpret" you mean consider them as paragraph instead of
headers then +1 for that. I prefer that we force closing them and have
a single way of defining them.
b) Interpret them but make closed title our default
(generated by
wysiwyg)
+1, as I wrote above I think that having clear sections in a page
helps to navigate in edit mode.
-0
c) Interpret them and make it our default
-0.
I'm +0 for only equal sign on the left but -0 for options: it's
either both left and right or only left for me.
Note 1: It's a pity this comes so late. But better late than never ;)
Note 2: This will take from 1 to 2 days for me to change if we decide
to go ahead with it so it may not be in 1.6M2.
BTW if someone has any concern on other syntax elements please raise
them now. It's the last chance. After that it'll have to go in XWiki
Syntax 2.1 (which btw is easy to do now that we support multiple
syntaxes).
Thanks JV for raising this
-Vincent