[xwiki-devs] [VOTE] XWiki 2.0 formal syntax definition - Bold & Link (SUMMARY)

[Vincent Massol]

Results:  7 +1, no 0, no -1, the vote is passed.

I'm creating the new XWiki Syntax 2.0 page right now.

FYI I've opened these 2 features request for wikimodel about this:
http://cod​e.google.c​om/p/wikim​odel/issue​s/detail?i​d=25
http://cod​e.google.c​om/p/wikim​odel/issue​s/detail?i​d=26

Thanks
-Vincent

On Jun 26, 2008, at 6:43 PM, Vincent Massol wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I think I've finished enough in the new rendering implementation so
> that we should now start defining formally the new XWiki 2.0 syntax.
>
> However before we do that let me highlight one important limitation
> due to the underlying frameworks we use (wikimodel in this case):
> Wikimodel is using a JavaCC grammar and thus is not able to do look
> ahead and backtracking (ANTLR can do it, but even if JavaCC could do
> it it would still be too expensive to use). This means that wikimodel
> is not able to support the following example:
>
> This is a * that is not a bold.
>
> When wikimodel sees one of XWiki's special char (like the star for
> bold) it'll put everything that comes after as bold, till it find
> another star or till the end of the document.
>
> There are 2 solutions out of this:
> * We don't allow users to enter non-escaped star for example.
> * Or better we change our syntax for bold so that it uses a 2 chars.
> For example **. It's less likely people will use 2 stars in their
> content and this is the reason most wikis use 2 chars. This is also
> consistent with our other syntaxes for underline, strikethrough,
> italics, etc. Note that this is also inline with the creole syntax: http://www.wikicreole.org/
>
> The same problem exists for links. We're currently using single
> brackets which means people cannot use brackets in their text. I'd
> also propose to use double brackets for links as in: [[This is a
> link]]. Again this is consistent with the rest.
>
> There are several other topics to address but let's start with Bold
> and Link syntaxes right now. Once we agree on them, I'll do the
> following:
> * Create a XWiki 2.0 syntax page on xwiki.org and put Bold and Linkj
> syntax there
> * Send change requests to wikimodel for the changes we decide
> * Adapt the new rendering module code
> * Send other emails for remaining syntax elements
>
> To summarize the vote here is about:
>
> * Using ** for bold in the new XWiki 2.0 syntax
> * Using [[ for links in the new XWiki 2.0 syntax
>
> Here's my +1 to both.
>
> Thanks
> -Vincent