[pmwiki-users] improved markup for floating images...?

[Ed W]

>Is it sufficient to say that if the first thing on a line is an
>image then it receives its own block, which by default floats right?
>Then we would have:
>
>    Attach:image.jpg                           # floating right w/margins
>    %float=left% Attach:image.jpg              # floating left w/margins
>    %framed% Attach:image.jpg                  # floating right w/frame
>    %framed% Attach:image.jpg [[<<]] caption   # floating right w/frame+caption
>    %thumb% Attach:image.jpg                   # floating right thumbnail
>    %center% Attach:image.jpg                  # centered, no wrapping
>    %right% Attach:image.jpg                   # right-aligned, no wrapping
>    %left% Attach:image.jpg                    # left-aligned, no wrapping
>    Some text Attach:image.jpg more text       # inlined in text
>
>In the extremely rare case that someone needs to start a line with
>an image that acts inlined, they can write things like:
>
>    [==] Attach:image.jpg here is some text
>
>I like it.  I like it a *lot*.  Implementing it may be a bit of 
>a challenge, but it is by far cleaner than anything else I've seen
>thus far.
>  
>

Looks great, except, what does [==] do?

I like the use of the style stuff to indicate how to style the image.  
However, I'm not totally happy with the captioning syntax.  I'm not sure 
I could give that to my wife to have her update our business website and 
for her not to be confused.

Any other ideas?  What about using %caption="sdfg""% would be cleaner... 
(but still a bit confusing).  Or does anyone really need alt text which 
is different from the caption?  You could use the alt text when there is 
a %frame% (oh, can we please call it %frame%, rathern than %framed%?)

I'm still wondering if the wikipedia way of using a start and end tag 
around the image doesn't give some options for a "shorthand" version of 
all the above.  ie if we disregard their choice of tag for the moment, then:

[[Image:image.jpg|right|my caption]]

Is actually rather easy to use?

The other thought is that you probably don't need a left and right 
aligned WITHOUT wrapping option - you could just document some syntax 
for a "clear:both" break and then the writer simply sticks one of those 
in when they want one.  This might simplify some syntax?

On the other hand it would also be nice to be able to float arbitrary 
paragraphs and hence style them up like notes within the text.  If you 
do put in a float syntax could it be made to apply to other block level 
items..?  What do you think?

OK, thoughts not quite cohesive here, but I think you get the gist...

Ed W