D Wiki

[Derek Parnell]

On Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:01:12 +0300, Yigal Chripun wrote:

> we have a wiki at work (which I despise) and it always confuses me with 
> it's weird syntax:
> =text= vs. ==text==
> i can never remember which one is the main title and which is the 
> sub-title. I honestlly prefer html tags over this.
> 
> I also hate that you need to enter the text, than click preview, then 
> fix the problems, then preview and so on. it feels like i'm debugging my 
> content which is annoying and a waste of time compared to a work flow 
> where you just see the end result in front of you in real time like in 
> MS Word.
> 
> consider that this is why lyx (gui for latex) renders math in real-time. 
> it's so much easier to write equations when you see what you entered 
> instead of some obscure code to render it.
> 
> besides, I don't see why programmers must be punished by forcing them to 
> use an inferior UI.

A wiki engine is a text to HTML translator. I've written one, based on the
Creole markup syntax, so I sort know what's involved. 

There are situations in which writing raw HTML is not the better option,
such as embedded documentation within source code. Ddoc is a kind-of wiki
engine in this regard. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with using a
simplified markup syntax via text UI, because it can be better, or the
only, solution in some common cases.

In order to write a wiki page I do not need any sophisticated software to
help me ... I can just do it with the simplest of text editors.

By the way, if one can't remember that '=' is a 1st level heading, and "=="
is a 2nd level heading and "===" is a 3rd level heading, etc ... then I'm
don't know how one can remember all the equivalent HTML tags.

I really would not like depending solely on a GUI application to write
source code that has embedded documentation.

There is a valid place for both models of creating a HTML page.

-- 
Derek Parnell
Melbourne, Australia
skype: derek.j.parnell