Last modified: 2010-05-15 15:33:20 UTC
The column widths applied to DIFF need addressing. Sometimes one DIFF column is 40 pixels and the other 800+.
*** Bug 1438 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Example of wide display lines: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia&diff=next&oldid=9818898
This really needs to be fixed. It makes diff pages completely unusable. Here is a short discussion: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29&oldid=14043658#Wiiiiiiide_diff_pages Four proposed solutions: * Leave it the way it is - Unacceptable * Put the long strings in boxes with automatic scrollbars that only appear with wide text - My favorite, if implemented for each td /td separately - related to Bug 414 * Break long text strings (which slashdot does, to avoid page-widening attacks) - My second favorite * Clip long strings to the rect of the two diff columns - Destroys information Good examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RTFM&diff=12625368&oldid=12536687 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nikola_Tesla&diff=0&oldid=13515391
Ok, I think that all you have to do to fix this for Firefoxers is change some lines in DifferenceEngine.php: # HTML-escape parameter before calling this function addedLine( $line ) { return "<td>+</td><td class='diff-addedline'>{$line}</td>"; } # HTML-escape parameter before calling this function deletedLine( $line ) { return "<td>-</td><td class='diff-deletedline'>{$line}</td>"; } # HTML-escape parameter before calling this function contextLine( $line ) { return "<td> </td><td class='diff-context'>{$line}</td>"; } Should become: # HTML-escape parameter before calling this function addedLine( $line ) { return "<td>+</td><td class='diff-addedline'><div class="diffblock">{$line}</div></td>"; } # HTML-escape parameter before calling this function deletedLine( $line ) { return "<td>-</td><td class='diff-deletedline'><div class="diffblock">{$line}</div></td>"; } # HTML-escape parameter before calling this function contextLine( $line ) { return "<td> </td><td class='diff-context'><div class="diffblock">{$line}</div></td>"; } Or class="diffparagraph" or something like that. Then add: .diffblock {overflow: auto;} to the css. I don't have a way to try this myself.
(In reply to comment #4) > Ok, I think that all you have to do to fix this for Firefoxers is change some > lines in DifferenceEngine.php: Apparently DIVs inside TDs is bad HTML. Oh well.
*** Bug 2992 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #5) > Apparently DIVs inside TDs is bad HTML. I have now been told that DIVs inside TDs is perfectly valid HTML: http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/sgml/dtd.html
To test Omegatron's proposed solution, you can use the following in your user js: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:CesarB/monobook.js&oldid=19891279 For some reason, it does not work always; some extreme cases where it fails badly are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:CesarB/monobook.js (the first one is particularly bad).
*** Bug 4494 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
javascript workaround here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_User_scripts/Scripts/Fix_diff_width
The javascript workaround rewrites the diff display in css instead of a table, and is known to work in Firefox, Konqueror, Opera and at least some versions of Internet Explorer. I'd like it if Mediawiki output code like this instead of the table it currently outputs. It just has to be changed to output spans and divs instead of the tds it uses now. Also, using tables for visual layout is bad. Just ask a google search. I'm going to change the Severity away from enhancement, since the super wide pages can be considered a bug.
Oh yeah. Discussion here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Ilmari_Karonen#Diff_width_fixer
Hmmm... diffs might qualify as a proper usage of tables, though; after all, the contents of each line are data, and we're not just putting it in the table to make it look nice. (We can't say the same for so many other uses of tables at Wikipedia.) One thing I'll miss about the table-based diffs is the ability to Ctrl-click a cell and copy the contents of an entire line to the clipboard. There's really no easy way of doing that with CSS.
(In reply to comment #13) > Hmmm... diffs might qualify as a proper usage of tables, though; after all, the > contents of each line are data, and we're not just putting it in the table to > make it look nice. (We can't say the same for so many other uses of tables at > Wikipedia.) You're right. With css turned off it just becomes a mess of text. Is there any way to use tables but still render correctly?
(In reply to comment #10) > javascript workaround here: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_User_scripts/Scripts/Fix_diff_width Thanks Omegatron for this note about the workaround! However the colors for added / deleted do not show properly at http://yi.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=%D7%91%D7%90%D6%B7%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%A2%D7%A8:Gangleri/monobook.js&diff=prev&oldid=7478 using Windows 2000 SP 2, FF 1.5 and IE 6.0 but they show properly at http://yi.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=%D7%91%D7%90%D6%B7%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%A2%D7%A8:Gangleri/monobook.js&diff=next&oldid=7478 best regards reinhardt [[user:gangleri]]
(In reply to comment #15) > However the colors for added / deleted do not show properly at I didn't write it. :-) Ask on the Wikiproject page. I will ask both there and here: Is there a way to get this formatting at the same time as the table markup?
(In reply to comment #16) Thanks Omegatron! ---- Please see also bug 4801 comment 0 Bug 4801: user:foo/monobook.js does not render in preview re: Bug 1229: Please change "OS" and "Hardware" if you experience this behaviour at other operating systems and / or hardware. Thanks in advance! best regards reinhardt [[user:gangleri]]
*addendum* RTL wikies should show the current version on the left side; see http://yi.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=user:Gangleri/monobook.js&diff=7485&oldid=7479 Behaviour depends on the wikies. Please make the tests at commons:, meta, b:, n:, s:, q:, wikt; w:. Thanks in advance! best regards reinhardt [[user:gangleri]]
(In reply to comment #14) > > You're right. With css turned off it just becomes a mess of text. Is there any > way to use tables but still render correctly? I haven't found one, though I just realized that it might be possible with some creative application of display:block. I'll have to test it to see if browsers will actually support it. With the current version, turning off CSS will put each cell on one line, making the result look almost like a unified context diff (diff -u) except that each context line is duplicated. I haven't found any way around that either, but at least it should be more or less readable in browsers like lynx.
(In reply to comment #18) > > RTL wikies should show the current version on the left side; see > http://yi.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=user:Gangleri/monobook.js&diff=7485&oldid=7479 The columns can easily be swapped by setting the float property of .xdiff-col to "right". However, the signs will still be on the left side of the columns. I think I know how to fix it, but it requires changing the DOM structure again. I'll try to address the issue in the next revision; ideally changing the display from LTR to RTL should be as easy as uncommenting one line of CSS.
(In reply to comment #19) > (In reply to comment #14) > > > > You're right. With css turned off it just becomes a mess of text. Is there any > > way to use tables but still render correctly? > > I haven't found one, though I just realized that it might be possible with some > creative application of display:block. I'll have to test it to see if browsers > will actually support it. > > With the current version, turning off CSS will put each cell on one line, making > the result look almost like a unified context diff (diff -u) except that each > context line is duplicated. I haven't found any way around that either, but at > least it should be more or less readable in browsers like lynx. Still, tables seem like the most appropriate way to handle diffs, and it's a pity that we have to come with workarounds for functionality that tables already offer (albeit with annoyingly uneven columns).
(In reply to comment #21) > Still, tables seem like the most appropriate way to handle diffs, and it's a > pity that we have to come with workarounds for functionality that tables already > offer (albeit with annoyingly uneven columns). Ilmari, did you see my first implementation where the DIVs were inside TDs? I don't know if it's a "proper" way to do it, and it got slow on mine on large pages, but it *did* work in Firefox, and combined the logicalness of tables with the 50% width of css formatting... Just a thought. I'm not a CSS guru or anything.
(In reply to comment #11) > The javascript workaround rewrites the diff display in css instead of a table, > and is known to work in Firefox, Konqueror, Opera and at least some versions of > Internet Explorer. > > I'd like it if Mediawiki output code like this instead of the table it currently > outputs. It just has to be changed to output spans and divs instead of the tds > it uses now. > > Also, using tables for visual layout is bad. Just ask a google search. This isn't using tables for visual layout. It's a perfectly legitimate use of tables for marking up tabular data. Each row denotes a paragraph that has changed (or is next to one that has), and each column denotes a version of the document. And while I'm at it, I shall remind you all that this bug is about the widths of the diff columns relative to each other. One erroneous dupe seems to have made the topic of discussion drift....
r22204 for bug 1438 will have fixed this as well, using fixed table layout and forcing overflow to scroll.
*** Bug 6798 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
