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I'm experimenting with this as well as I'm layering TinyMCE over a wiki for my side project, Bibdex (dev image http://bibdex.org:8080 http://bibdex.org:8080). I

by sunir 17y ago

I'm experimenting with this as well as I'm layering TinyMCE over a wiki for my side project, Bibdex (dev image http://bibdex.org:8080 http://bibdex.org:8080). I have tried extending TinyMCE with a wiki syntax parser. However, I'm unconvinced there is real value in confusing the text with magic syntax, with one exception. Wiki markup is mostly cosmetic, so you can throw all of it out--except for auto-linkification. Linking makes the wiki. This was easy with CamelCase links, but much harder for free links or other types of links. I do wonder if it's possible to train people to use exactly one syntactic form, the square brackets. [words] -> free link [http://url text] -> descriptive link [http://url] -> escaped link (useful to pick up trailing punctuation) Presumably when you write a left square bracket, a floating div could appear with contextual help and auto-suggest. If others are interested, I'm happy to share my efforts.

spxdcz 17y ago
Interesting stuff. I definitely think there's an important balance to be struck between adding efficiency with keyboard shortcuts, while still making it accessible to novices (which I'm not sure wiki syntax is). But for power-users, this could be very interesting.
- pbhjpbhj 17y ago
  >adding efficiency with keyboard shortcuts, while still making it accessible to novices Reddit's comment writing hints, moreso than the brief Wikipedia hints, are quite easy to pick up even for new site users.
anthonyb 17y ago
I think the article has it exactly backwards. Start with the link, and the popup part should prompt you for the plain text part. ie. I paste in "http://example.com/ http://example.com/ and the javascript/tinymce pops up a "Link Text >" prompt. Much more intuitive IMHO than highlighting things which aren't obviously links, or adding extra syntax.
- jamesrcole 17y ago
  it should work both ways. sometimes you think of the link text first, url second. other times it's the other way around.

by sunir 17y ago

spxdcz 17y ago

Interesting stuff. I definitely think there's an important balance to be struck between adding efficiency with keyboard shortcuts, while still making it accessible to novices (which I'm not sure wiki syntax is). But for power-users, this could be very interesting.

pbhjpbhj 17y ago
>adding efficiency with keyboard shortcuts, while still making it accessible to novices Reddit's comment writing hints, moreso than the brief Wikipedia hints, are quite easy to pick up even for new site users.

anthonyb 17y ago

I think the article has it exactly backwards. Start with the link, and the popup part should prompt you for the plain text part. ie. I paste in "http://example.com/ http://example.com/ and the javascript/tinymce pops up a "Link Text >" prompt. Much more intuitive IMHO than highlighting things which aren't obviously links, or adding extra syntax.

jamesrcole 17y ago
it should work both ways. sometimes you think of the link text first, url second. other times it's the other way around.