[pmwiki-users] Delete EditGettingStarted, CharacterMarkup, LineMarkup (and more)? (Oliver Betz)

john.rankin at affinity.co.nz john.rankin at affinity.co.nz
Sat Feb 7 23:35:11 CST 2009


> Hello All,
>
> there is a cluster of pages in the PmWiki/ group which is in my
> opinion mostly obsolete and redundant, since the information is
> contained in the edit quick reference and the pages linked from there.

The intended audience for these pages is absolute beginners who
have never used a wiki before and never used markup before, but
wish to learn. While it is true that the information is found in other
places, these either assume a knowledge of how wikis work and
how to use markup or they provide a level of detail that may be
overwhelming for the absolute beginner.

Sometimes it helps to see things from more than one perspective.
You are free to ignore them if you find them unhelpful.

If there is no requirement for a set of introductory pages for new
users, then they can, I think, be safely deleted. However, I urge
caution, as the number one reason I hear for not using a wiki is,
"I will not use it because it is not wysiwyg". They then point to a
long list of markup rules that are "hard to learn".

So while the information is a repetition of that found elsewhere,
the pages are not necessarily redundant. Of course, they may
not be fulfilling their intended purpose either.

Just my 10¢ worth.
>
> LineMarkup: Wrong title, redundant.

What would be a correct title? I have never known what to call
markup that starts a line and affects the behaviour of the whole
line and only the line. Start-of-line markup? Line markup seems
simpler and clearer to me.
>
> BlockMarkup: Is linked from the Documentation Index. The bottom part
> is IMO redundant and does not dfescribe "block markup". Could be
> merged with WikiStyles and Cookbook/DivisionsExplained.

This is a good example of how edits to a page have over time
changed its purpose. The EditGettingStarted page defines block
markup as follows:

Some markup affects the display of several lines of text --
or text blocks.

Under this definition, the bottom part of the page does indeed
describe block markup, whereas the top part of the page now
suggests that "block markup" is only about wikistyles.

If these pages are deleted, there is AFAIK nowhere else in the
documentation that offers a logical way to understand wiki
markup. Exhibit A is TextFormattingRules and Exhibit B is
MasterMarkupIndex. It seems a shame to lose the markup
classification scheme (grammar) that these pages present.


JR





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