Re: Wiki madness

On Die, 2003-01-14 at 18:29, Kaitlin Duck Sherwood wrote:
> At 9:37 AM +0100 1/14/03, Erik Moeller wrote:
> >  http://lists.osafoundation.org/pipermail/design/2002-October/000338.html
> >  -> problems with CamelCase syntax
> 
> Um, this Twiki doesn't mandate CamelCase.  You can use the exact same 
> syntax as wikipedia, e.g.
> 	[[some topic]]
> in addition to
> 	SomeTopic

Yes, I know that, Kaitlin. The problem is that TWiki generates a
CamelCase page in the background. This makes the creation of UgLy page
titles even more likely, as people create pages like

	[[Chandler Wiki Goals and Structure]]

	which results in 

	ChandlerWikiGoalsAndStructure.

On the
http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Main/ChandlerWikiGoalsAndStructure
page

you thus get a mix of both styles (CamelCase in the subtitle, free links
in the title). People are likely to use both forms of links, too. This
generates even *more* confusion as users come across both well-formatted
links and long, UgLy link patterns which link to the *same pages*!

>From a usability perspective, the transparent creation of CamelCase even
when free links are specified invokes nightmarish images in my mind. I
also find it quite schizophrenic that you are currently wasting a lot of
precious time to show CamelCase links as free links. For example, from
ChandlerDiscussionTopics:

   * [[AgentIssues][Agents]]
   * [[ContentParsingFrameworkIssues][Content parsing framework]]
   * [[EndUserScriptingIssues][End-user scripting]]
   * [[InterApplicationsIssues][Inter-application issues]]
   * [[InternationalizationIssues][Internationalization]]
   * [[MediaHandlerIssues][Media handlers]]
   * [[PlatformSpecificIssues][Platform-specific issues]]
   * [[PreferencesIssues][Preferences]]

You wouldn't have this uneditable and confusing mess if you had decided
to use free links in the first place. Even the maintainers of some of
the first CamelCase wikis are now expressing support for free links --
but they have no way back, as their wikis are far too large to convert
them. <voice type="sensei">You still have a choice ..</voice>

Regards,

Erik
Anti-CamelCase Crusader #1
-- 
FOKUS - Fraunhofer Insitute for Open Communication Systems
Project BerliOS - http://www.berlios.de

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