Re: [cowiki-dev] The new coWiki parser
Paul Hanchett <[email protected]> Thu, 22 Sep 2005 07:38:42 -0700
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.php.cowiki.devel |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
--------------080700000908040405010502 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Archie and Team-- I've been meaning to ask a question... If we back out the parser for now, what features and bug fixes do we loose? The "Black Magic" that seems to be contained in the parser frankly makes me very nervous and tells me that it is serious trouble. Perhaps a strategic retreat and some planning sessions are what's required instead... Frankly, I think some of the trouble is that wikitext syntax has become polluted with multiple contextual grammars, which is really quite a bad thing. We also don't have any formal understanding of what our grammar *is* (at least, _I_ don't) and whether or not it contains ambiguities (it does). I have a vision. How about a world where users neither know nor care that their documents contain something called "markup" or that graphics and other included elements need to be uploaded to the server... A world where the user edits their document in WYSIWYG mode and doesn't see anything else. Wiki syntax was originally based on "The simplest thing that could possibly work" (for the _programmer_). But I think where we need to aim is at the simplest thing for the _/user/_. As we try to make wiki text formatting more general, it's probably easier for us as well. Paul Archie Campbell wrote: > Hi guys. The parser is mired in parallel work through the test units, > working through bugs in the various files. > > However, I have to revise for some Open University exams that I'll be > sitting in October, so nothing much is happening to the parser for a > while. > > Bear with me or throw me out, I need to do the revision. > > Daniel T. Gorski wrote: > >> Hi folks, >> >> What is the state of the new coWiki parser? Archie? >> --------------080700000908040405010502 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Archie and Team--<br> <br> I've been meaning to ask a question... If we back out the parser for now, what features and bug fixes do we loose? The "Black Magic" that seems to be contained in the parser frankly makes me very nervous and tells me that it is serious trouble. Perhaps a strategic retreat and some planning sessions are what's required instead...<br> <br> Frankly, I think some of the trouble is that wikitext syntax has become polluted with multiple contextual grammars, which is really quite a bad thing. We also don't have any formal understanding of what our grammar *is* (at least, _I_ don't) and whether or not it contains ambiguities (it does).<br> <br> <font color="#3333ff">I have a vision. How about a world where users neither know nor care that their documents contain something called "markup" or that graphics and other included elements need to be uploaded to the server... A world where the user edits their document in WYSIWYG mode and doesn't see anything else.<br> </font><br> Wiki syntax was originally based on "The simplest thing that could possibly work" (for the <u>programmer</u>). But I think where we need to aim is at the simplest thing for the <u><i>user</i></u>. As we try to make wiki text formatting more general, it's probably easier for us as well.<br> <br> Paul<br> <br> <br> Archie Campbell wrote: <blockquote cite="[email protected]" type="cite">Hi guys. The parser is mired in parallel work through the test units, working through bugs in the various files. <br> <br> However, I have to revise for some Open University exams that I'll be sitting in October, so nothing much is happening to the parser for a while. <br> <br> Bear with me or throw me out, I need to do the revision. <br> <br> Daniel T. Gorski wrote: <br> <br> <blockquote type="cite">Hi folks, <br> <br> What is the state of the new coWiki parser? Archie? <br> <br> </blockquote> </blockquote> <br> </body> </html> --------------080700000908040405010502--