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A few months ago, I wanted to insert a double backslash into a Confluence wiki page. This isn't as odd as it sounds; Windows network file paths begin with \\Foo
by goodside 16y ago
A few months ago, I wanted to insert a double backslash into a Confluence wiki page. This isn't as odd as it sounds; Windows network file paths begin with \\Foo\. Since backslashes are of course an escape char, you usually have to use \\\\ to get \\ to output. But, in Confluence, this outputs two newlines. Yes, double-backslash is the symbol for a newline.
Counter-intuitive, yes, but no worse than that so long as there's another symbol you can use for when you do need a double-backslash. But, the thing is, there isn't. When Confluence was first designed, they used up their only escape char with their nonstandard newline symbol. This is, their support staff informed me, a deep-rooted and unchangeable aspect of how Confluence works. It's not a bug, because it will never be changed.
This should give you the gist of what Atlassian is like.
- i386 16y agoSorry you had a problem with Confluence. I can tell you that there is a project running right now to make the editor a lot nicer to work with. Not sure on the delivery schedule (I work on Bamboo so its not my product) but I believe it is on its way.
- brown9-2 16y agoIt might not help now, but I think you could have wrapped \\Foo\ with {noformat}\\Foo\{noformat}
- goodside 16y agoThis does not work. Nothing obvious will. This is an acknowledged issue that they are opting never to resolve. Here's a relevant issue on their bug tracker that has been open for four years: http://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-6405 http://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-6405 It wouldn't be nearly as infuriating if it weren't caused by such a terrible design decision (using doubled backslashes for line breaks when the backslash is your only escape char) in the first place.
- daredevildave 16y agoThey must have fixed something, because in our Confluence wiki: \\ -> new line \\\\ -> \\\\ \\Foo -> Foo \\Foo\Bar -> \\Foo\Bar Somewhat errant result for \\Foo, but the other ones seem to work.
- goodside 16y agoThe \\Foo\ example I gave was poorly chosen, because they put in a kluge fix so that anything that resembles a Windows file path will pass through unparsed. You cannot use \\ in any other circumstance, which is why \\Foo failed.