zim-wiki team mailing list archive

[Jaap Karssenberg <jaap.karssenberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 6:42 AM, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 8 June 2010 03:30, Pedro <pedro100@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Verbatim text is an important feature and should have central importance.
>> That said, I believe it's perfectly possible to improve zim in that
>> particular aspect with very little impact on user experience.
>>
>
> I am not arguing to remove verbatim text. I am arguing to have options
> not to parse wikicode such as *asterisks* :colons: _underscores_ and
> whatever parses.
>
> Jaap, if there is such resistance to adding these options in the core
> of Zim, could these options be added in a plugin? I don't know how
> that mechanism works, I do not know if it is possible.

Well, the way to escape the things is by using the verbatim style.
Since all wiki syntax uses double characters (so **asterisks** are
bold but *asterisk* is normal, idem for __underscore__ verus
_underscore_, :colon: will be turned into a link when typed, not when
pasted, use ^Z to ignore it when typing) the assumption is that this
will only happen in code snippets and similar text. For these types of
text verbatim gives the proper formatting and escapes all wiki syntax.

There are two arguments to keep it like this, the first being that by
using a special style for this type of text it can be formatted
accordingly when exporting to e.g. latex or html. Second argument is
that adding an escape character to allow un-parsed wiki text
everywhere makes the parse quite a bit more complex. That said it
could be implemented. My main discussion point is when to actually use
such an escape during editing.

Keep in mind that you can change the visual style of the verbatim
blocks quite easily. E.g. if you don't like the monospace font you can
set any other font for this style.

Regards,

Jaap