Re: [cowiki-dev] markup language, plugin list

Inline help is something that I've wanted to see for some time. 
Little questionark graphics or something which load another tab or pop
up a new window or pop up some javascripty thing with quick help would
be nice to see.

As a start, I agree that the plugin list should be changed.  Complete
editing help doesn't, in my opinion, belong so boldly at the bottom of
an edit page.  I like the idea of conserving the bandwidth and making
such help text optional.

I don't know how to envision it, but there should be inline help for
absolutely everything.  In fact, a lot of the documentation should be
made installation-only, with use documentation being a simple
walkthrough.. and the real documentation is buried within.

I also would like to mention somewhere that all "included"
documentation should be user/administrator editable.  Seeing Wikipedia
references in a MediaWiki installations makes me curse something
fierce.

However, this raises the problem of upgrades destroying someone's
customizations.  Hrm.. lots to think about.



On 6/18/05, PAUL HANCHETT <[email protected]> wrote:
>  OK, thanks.  I would be OK with a help popup (except that I have popups
> disabled!)  I don't find the plugin list very helpful because it doesn't
> identify either the purpose or the parameters to the plugin.
>  
>  Actually, I would like help to be more generally available without having
> to go to another page on the wiki.
>  
>  I've seen a cool trick done with JavaScript to make an "Accordian"
> display-- Click on a bar to reveal the content inside it.  It lets you
> choose how your display space gets used, very nice.  Along the same lines,
> we could do a tabbed display where it was appropriate.
>  
>  (I've been working at learning what can be done client side with
> JavaScript.  It's really quite impressive!)
>  
>  Paul
>  
> 
>  John (yt) Hogenmiller wrote: 
>  You know, if you're looking for change ideas, I would suggest putting
> the markup language guide underneath the edit box instead of the
> plugin list. I have been using cowiki for a while now, and I often
> have a tab where I'm editing, and then another tab with the markup
> page open. It's an easy language, and after you use it for a good
> while, it becomes memory, but I think most people starting out would
> like to see that below. If having the plugins is worthwhile, I would
> recommend using layers that would have both, but the user would only
> show the important bit, or hide both.
> 
> Now that I think about it, this would be a theme issue. I've been
> working on a new theme for cowiki with some interesting features
> (collapsible menus, right/left menu, configurable logos/graphics)
> geared towards greater customization of the overall site.
> I think I will throw this idea into it and hopefully release a
> pre-beta sometime this week for people to check out.
> 
> -John
> 
>  
>