Last modified: 2014-06-24 20:20:45 UTC
today, VE is already smart enough to realize that when the user types "[[", they probably do not mean to add the string "[[" to the page, but rather trying to add an internal link. as of now, VE responds by displaying a popup saying something like "this is probably not what you meant to do". this request is about teaching VE to do what i *did* mean to do, rather than warning me about the problem. to read more about the actual problem, please run this search: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?query_format=specific&order=relevance%20desc&bug_status=__open__&product=VisualEditor&content=nowiki&list_id=219956 REQUESTED ACTION 0) read [[en:DWIM]] 1) change what VE does when i type "[[": instead of popping the warning popup, remove it from the page and pretend i pressed <Ctrl>+K. 2) when i type "{{", remove it from the page and pretend i pressed the "edit template" button. 3) if you can find a good response to "==", do this also. 4) if it's possible to convince VE to be nicer when i type '' or ''' or ''''', this would be grand. 5) of course, if VE finds unbalanced '', ''', or <newLine>={1,4}, when trying to save, it would be nice if it can warn me then. peace.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 49686 ***
(In reply to comment #1) > *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 49686 *** Following discussion at bug 49686 (particularly Chris McKenna's wonderful analysis in bug 49686 comment 28), it's become clear that this request (bug 51897) is distinct from the request being made in bug 49686. I firmly believe that this request should be handled separately (though it may indeed have the same outcome); I'm un-marking this bug as a duplicate.
In anticipation of someone introducing the slippery slope argument that "but if you do this you'll have to support all wikicode!!!": If this is implemented, you ''won't'' have to support all wikicode and parse it on the fly. This is not what is being asked at this bug. If you really want to support the uncommon case that someone really wanted to introduce two brackets (something that is useful only for discussing wikicode, nd therefore only for experienced users), you can always include a "[[" symbol at the symbol toolbar. In good user interface design, you optimize for the frequent case and create workarounds for the exceptional situations, not the other way around. This is not an all-or-nothing proposition; you can put a hard limit on what you won't do, but it can be located at a useful place - the one that recognizes that "you probably wanted to insert a wikilink" and that answers with "here, this is the standard way to insert a wikilink now" instead of "wikicode is not supported, I'm discarding your user action". The second one is much more friendly for infrequent users that learned just enough wikicode to insert a wikilink and not much more.
Given the cryptic name name and description of this bug, I can't help but recall http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20011121 Hopefully it is now clearer. I'm not sure it could be more opaque. :-)
(In reply to comment #4) > Given the cryptic name name and description of this bug, I can't help but > recall http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20011121 > > Hopefully it is now clearer. I'm not sure it could be more opaque. :-) regarding the original synopsis ("Please DWIM when i press "[[", "{{", "==" etc."), the truth/beauty/whatever is in the eye of the beholder (personally, i think the original synopsis was better and clearer than the current one, but again, it's in the eye of the beholder). however, comment #0 is only cryptic if one doesn't bother to read it. it states as plainly and clearly as humanly possible what is the requested action (surprisingly, under "REQUESTED ACTION"). VE was activated today on hewiki for anons (only several hours ago), and we already see proliferation of "nowiki" tags enclosing internal links (popup and all notwithstanding). it is somewhat frustrating that this problem was reported months ago, it became very clear, through actual usage, that the popup warning is not enough to solve it, and yet the VE team broadcast an air of indifference/complacency/arrogance when discussing the issue, either by closing with "WONTFIX", assigning priority "low", or throwing snide remarks when we report the issue and ask for (well defined) solutions (and first and foremost, of course, simply by not fixing it). peace.
