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Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2010 18:13:33 -0700
From: Joshua Saddler <nightmorph@gentoo.org>
To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] [Gentoo Phoenix] an official Gentoo wiki
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On Mon, 5 Apr 2010 02:08:06 +0200
Ben de Groot <yngwin@gentoo.org> wrote:

> On 4 April 2010 21:33, Joshua Saddler <nightmorph@gentoo.org> wrote:
> > Having to write a custom stylesheet just to get one wiki page to do what
> > you want is pretty dumb.
>=20
> Yes it would be. The idea is that you design consistent styling from
> the get-go, so your stylesheets will be ready for those needs. Pretty
> much the same as the current documentation solution.
>=20
> > How is it unfair? Because tables really are so much simpler to write in
> > GuideXML?
>=20
> No, because they were displaying different things, using different featur=
es.
>=20
> > Here's a more complicated table:
> >
> > http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xml-guide.xml#doc_chap2_sect10
> > source: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xml-guide.xml?passthru=3D1
>=20
> And you think that's intuitive? Tables are a bitch, and I think both
> the GuideXML approach (copied from HTML) and the wiki syntax one are
> equally unintuitive. In my opinion reStructuredText is offering a
> better alternative:
> http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/user/rst/quickref.html#tables

At least the GuideXML approach to tables is familiar to anyone who's worked=
 with HTML. Oh wait, you shouldn't be comparing GuideXML with HTML. More on=
 that later in this message.

Also, don't get me started on rST's many failings. It's just like wiki synt=
ax, in that anything you want to do besides line spaces and lists involves =
stupid nonsemantic code. Having to define URIs twice is retarded:

"External hyperlinks sample sentence, like Python_."

.. _Python: http://www.python.org/=20


Tables:
A big problem with rST and wiki markup is that they try to preserve the ren=
dered format within the source code view.

+------------+------------+-----------+
| Header 1   | Header 2   | Header 3  |
+=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D+=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D+=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D+
| body row 1 | column 2   | column 3  |
+------------+------------+-----------+=20

That's rST source. This gets unwieldy very quickly for larger tables, as th=
ey'll overflow your editor window. Hey, that might not be a problem, but it=
's also a losing proposition to try to have that stuff rendered within the =
source view.

Let the renderer take care of the final rendering, as really, tags and mark=
up are all arbitrary. What should matter is how it appears in your webbrows=
er, since that'll vary from the source view anyways.

. . . I hope you aren't seriously suggested rST as the wiki format.

> > Mediawiki mostly involves memorizing how many quote or tick marks you u=
se.
>=20
> The beauty is: you don't have to memorize it, as it is just a click of
> a button on the editor interface away.

And not everyone will want to do that. I certainly don't like clicking arou=
nd when it's easier and faster for me to just type the code myself.

Really, you're mostly making a case for a graphical XML editor like Beacon,=
 rather than making a case for a wiki. :)

> > This markup is *completely nonsemantic*. In GuideXML, you know EXACTLY =
what
> > each tag means.

> No, I don't. The body and title tags are used quite differently from
> HTML, which is confusing. When do I use section and when do I use
> body? And what the frak is stmt? And why uri and figure instead of
> HTML's a and img tags? Except to a few dedicated people, GuideXML is
> confusing.

That's your problem, then. Do you know what semantic means? Semantic doesn'=
t mean "just like HTML." So stop treating it that way. Let's look at semant=
ic tags.

It's not hard to see that <var> is a variable and that <stmt> is a statemen=
t, and <comment> is a comment. Semantic markup is markup that means what it=
 says. Using punctuation marks like '  '' ; : is neither semantically usefu=
l nor easily readable, as I showed in the code samples you oh-so-casually s=
kipped over. Nice try. ' and ' ' mean nothing in and of themselves.

But you're not a web author, so I'll stop trying to beat you over the head =
with how things work. Next point:

> Having to mix HTML with a different dialect of XML is equally stupid,
> and moreover it is confusing. At least with MediaWiki, you don't have
> to use it, as there are other options.

Why the hell do you keep bringing up HTML? Stop comparing GuideXML with HTM=
L. Treat them as two separate languages, please.

I only mentioned GuideXML in the context of "it's easier to learn because i=
t has fewer tags than HTML" -- you operate under the mistaken assumption th=
at GuideXML should be *like* HTML, and that HTML has too many tags. You ass=
ume that everyone comes from an HTML background and thus will be confused b=
y GuideXML.

> What do you mean? You can predefine styles in your CSS to express your
> "textual color palette" (if I understand correctly what you meant by
> that). There is advanced code syntax highlighting available, for
> example using GeSHi.

Okay, then you also need a way to get those styles into your document by co=
ming up with new tags or wiki markup.

<var> is a variable in GuideXML, and it'll be colored yellow. You mark this=
 variable in a <pre> block with the <var> tag, which is created just for th=
is purpose. How do you accomplish this in, say, Mediawiki syntax? Without t=
rying to recycle some crap bit of HTML or tacking on inline styles.

Using <span> is ugly, because it's HTML. You should NEVER have to use more =
than one markup language at a time.

Do all the wikis out there have solutions for adding custom markup/tags?

> That's not fully correct. XML has in principle a practically infinite
> number of tags. It all depends on which "dialect" you use. If it is a
> dialect you do not use a lot, you will forget the usage of particular
> tags.

By "XML" I mean GuideXML.

And yes, clearly GuideXML and metadata.xml are some of your weak areas if y=
ou have to keep looking up the basics. However, with practice you *will* ge=
t better. :)

> > Most of us have used GuideXML at some point or another in our /proj/
> > webpages and devspaces, if not in /doc/en/. Guess what? That's the same
> > XML, and there's much, much more content constantly written for /proj/ =
and
> > dev.g.o than for /doc/. So don't try to tell me that people don't have =
at
> > least passing familiarity with it.
>=20
> That's not the point. The problem is that most of us don't use it
> often enough to be sufficiently fluent in it, and you will never use
> it for anything else but gentoo.org pages. Moreover, there is no web
> UI for quick edits, with helpful buttons and hints...

And you'll never use wiki syntax for anything but wiki pages. Specifically,=
 the syntax of whatever wiki is chosen, and not all wikis are equal, so the=
re's no guarantee that your syntax will be useful elsewhere. What's your po=
int?

Quick edits are edits that go right to the code, where you don't have to sl=
ow down by using anything but the keyboard. Work with web languages long en=
ough, and you'll appreciate not being hampered by a GUI.

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