[pmwiki-users] Re-thinking Intro to markup pages

[Tegan Dowling]

On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 3:04 PM,  <john.rankin at affinity.co.nz> wrote:
> FWIW, my view is that PmWiki's markup set now presents a very
> high barrier to entry for new users, especially those who are new
> to wiki markup.
>
> I do not have a good answer to this and your posts are convincing
> me that the pages in question are not fit for their intended purpose.
> Let me suggest an alternative for discussion. We now have the
> Creole markup standard which gives a core markup set that every
> wiki ought to offer as a minimum. AFAIK, the Creole set was a very
> carefully chosen balance between power and simplicity.
>
> My proposal is that an IntroductionToPmWIkiMarkup page presents
> PmWiki's markup rules for the Creole markup functions, in the
> order they are described in the Creole standard. See
> http://www.wikicreole.org/
>
> For avoidance of doubt: the Introduction page would contain
> *only* the Creole markup set, no matter how much we might
> want to include "just one or two more features".
>
> I would be very happy to see the PmWiki documentation factored
> to use the Creole set as an introduction, with branches to more
> advanced markup features. This does not require PmWiki to adopt
> the Creole standard, just use the Creole thinking. I think I would
> also refactor EditQuickReference to present only the Creole markup
> set, with links to other markup features. Or at least separate the
> Creole set from anything else that may be on the quick reference
> page.
>
> JR

As a non-programming user who trains and supports other
non-programming users, I like John's thinking here.  For what that's
worth.  I've been thinking about looking at, with an eye to enabling,
the creole recipe if it looks like it's stable, and then training new
users to that -- this way at least whatever I taught them would be
supported elsewhere as well, making them more confident that they're
learning useful rules.  What's more, I'm hoping that we'll have a
wysiwyg interface for the creole set, some day.

SO having the introductory material begin with the creole set (even if
they aren't the creole rules) would be a great place to start my
trainees.