[Pmwiki-users] the descriptions of emphasis

[Tom Holroyd]

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004, Joachim Durchholz wrote:

> Ah, the old trade-off between "keep it simple and manageable to draw 
> newbies into the Wiki way" and "make it powerful enough to cover all needs".

Yup.  In fact PmWiki's simplicity drew me to it as well.  My end 
users are also somewhat technically unsophisticated.  My original 
objection was to proposals for some (IMHO) non-simple syntax.  I 
also think the syntax should be as simple as possible.  In that 
sense, it should also have some consistency.

The (:command args...:) syntax is a good example.  It's simple, 
consistent, and powerful.  But maybe that's already too 
complicated for end users.

We also have %command% forms.  I'm not real sure what the 
distinction is here; perhaps somebody could expand on this?

Then there is the "random markup" syntax.  This is the stuff that 
the "proliferation" argument warns about.  It's too easy to think 
up random [+-*character sequences*+-] that are impossible to 
remember (you probably shouldn't _need_ a cheat-sheet for these;
if you do it's too complicated).

Shortcuts are OK, like smileys, but these are more "local 
customizations that are enabled by default" sort of things.

Dr. Tom Holroyd
"A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and
are the portals of discovery." -- James Joyce