zim-wiki team mailing list archive

[Fabian Moser <e-mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 7 Jun 2010 12:19:34 +0200
Jaap Karssenberg <jaap.karssenberg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I think we need further discussion how and when to allow wiki syntax
> and when to assume verbatim text. I really want to keep the feature
> that you can write wiki syntax directly into zim without the need for
> all the gui elements to do formatting. 

I concur. Otherwise it would be called "rich text editor" rather than "wiki".

> Since your case seems to be especially about pasting code snippets,
> one solution could be to paste blocks of text as verbatim paragraphs.
> E.g. have a "paste as verbatim" menu item, and add an option to paste
> as verbatim by default.
> ...
> However such options may be unintelligible to less technical users,
> but not sure about that.

I believe, that's perfectly OK. If you want to be really fussy, you could make a dialogue pop up the first time a user interacts with the clipboard to let him pick his mode of choice (verbatim or formatted).

> Ideally I would like a proposal that results in doing the right thing
> in all cases without forcing the user to go through an elaborate set
> of customization options.

You could also scan the clipboard content for wiki formatting characters and pop up a dialogue, asking for normal or verbatim paste, in case some are found and otherwise default to normal paste.

I'm personally a big fan of the KISS principle. Especially when it comes to software. Therefore I would avoid magic and dialogues and have the current standard paste and an additional verbatim paste with a separate short-cut. If "less technical users" need that feature, they can be expected to look into the docs (or the menu) for 10 seconds and read about the "verbatim paste" IMHO.

Cheers,
Fabian

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: PGP signature