[pmwiki-users] leading spaces switch for 2.2.0 (somewhat important)

[The Editor]

On 3/25/07, marc <gmane at auxbuss.com> wrote:
> With respect, dumbing down features to meet the inability of folk to
> adapt is not a road that I wish to travel.

To be honest, I've never understood the reason for the leading space
rule.  I would much rather have a special markup or a config value
that can be turned on for it, than the way it is now.  Anything we can
do to make PmWiki more intuitive and easy for users we should do.

Unless there's an overbearing reason to keep the leading space rule
I'm 100% in favor of disabling it by default.  Of course, with Han's
new LWS recipe I'm good either way...

> > A simple leading whitespace can be all the difference between
> > successful adoption and the failure of a new wiki, if it rubs the
> > wrong person the wrong way.
>
> Well, they really should be less sensitive!

Yes but this is something we really don't have control over.  We can
however be realistic and try to avoid some of this.

> Nevertheless, I'm not seeing this behaviour at all. I work globally, and
> this past week I've been in Asia where I have a few clients who have
> adapted to PmWiki in house with ease. As it happens, I've suggested
> PmWiki to a few voluntary and sports groups while socialising, and the
> uptake has been terrific - folk love that they can alter content
> themselves without an intermediary "webmaster". A lot of these folk
> don't speak a European language, and some of them don't fully understand
> the Latin alphabet, yet no-one has been in the least bit fazed by the
> leading space syntax.

I've definitely had this problem in my wiki.  Perhaps your clients are
brighter, or you have been able to find a way to provide better
training.  But even so, this will be a solution for the rest of us.
And it does make things easier for end users. One less thing to
remember or get confused about.

I'd be interested again in hearing your reasons for keeping the
leading white space rule.  Is there actually some reason it shouldn't
be turned off by default?

Cheers,
Dan