[Mediawiki-l] what-you-see-is-what-you-get edit program?

Mon Mar 14 20:08:26 UTC 2005

My user base ranges from wiki-experts to computer novices.  The novices 
are usually unable to grasp the idea of a markup language and give up 
before making contributions.  On the other hand, some of my 
wiki-experts are frustrated with YAWML--Yet Another Wiki Markup 
Language.  It's nice to live in one wiki world, but it's not always 
possible and the local markup dialects seem unending.  Both extremes 
and many users in between would benefit from a more direct editing 
approach that avoided the markup nature of current wikis.  Even a 
limited set of capabilities would provide scaffolding for the novice 
and a welcome relief to the expert.  The current markup can be 
available for those who want to add complexity or elegance.

This issue is probably not a MediaWiki issue.  Supporting Wikipedia and 
family is obviously job #1, and it seems well-served by the current 
structure.  But there are many of us who have borrowed the MediaWiki 
tool (for all it's benefits) and applied it to other contexts.  If WE 
want different editing capabilities, then WE will probably need to step 
up to the plate and make it happen.

Con Rodi
Center for Human-Computer Interaction
Virginia Tech

On Mar 14, 2005, at 1:59 PM, Sterling D. Allan wrote:

> I can see that the sheer number of HTML/Wiki code possibilities used in
> mediawiki would make the WYSIWYG task nearly impossible if one wanted 
> to be
> able to enable all possible formatting options.  So the "price" one 
> will pay
> in going with a WYSIWYG editor would be a narrowing of formatting 
> options.
>
> In my case, that is a price that I would be willing to pay because I 
> want to
> make it easy for those brilliant scientists who barely know how to 
> spell.