Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-05 Thread Christoph Zwerschke

Am 05.03.2012 14:43, schrieb Dotan Cohen:

Can you please mention support for adding an option to disable
wiki-syntax parsing here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/585300


Ok, I have added a link to the new ticket 
https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/946229 where it is already 
mentioned. The old ticket does not need to reopened, it is all covered 
by the new one.


-- Christoph

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-04 Thread Christoph Zwerschke

Am 04.03.2012 07:19, schrieb Ulf Bro:

The editor I use in everyday life is Vim (Vi). Here you switch
between modes all the time. But you do so without taking your fingers
off the keyboard. A similar edit mode in Zim would be no harm so
long as one could keep the mouse out of the business.


That's true, but the big difference is that in vi, the data and its 
rendering doesn't change at all when you switch between modes. vi 
doesn't show any rendered data, it only changes the accepted keyboard 
commands. But when you switch between rendered display and raw data, the 
content of your editor window changes, and usually it's not even 
possible to adapt the cursor position. So when you spot a typo in view 
mode, and then switch to edit mode, you need to find the location of 
that typo in the markup again. This is what makes separate edit/view 
modes so unproductive for everyday use in a personal wiki in my opionon. 
I think switching to raw mode should only be used as a last resort in 
zim, not be encouraged as the standard way of editing content.


But speaking of vi, it's a perfect example for great and mature software 
that is still not usable for the casual user. Without getting 
aquainted with the two input modes and the keyboard commands, users will 
only be frustrated with vi.



One thing that surely should be added is a way to easily switch
the editor to raw mode where it does not do any rendering. It
should not be understood or used as the default edit mode, but it
may be sometimes useful to see or edit the raw version of a page.


That is the point I'd like to support. With one key, and this could
be a function key like F2 for example, you could open an external
editor in a new window of course on the currently displayed page (im
my case that would be Vim) and do whatever editing you find suitable.
Then after saving, do a reload with Ctrl-R and that's it.

On the other hand you mostly really shouldn't need to do that.
Therefore there is no need to waste time doing revolutionary
development on Zim's code to enable raw editing. Just a key to open
an external editor and that's it.


Agree. Except opening an external editor can be dangerous because then 
you have two disconnected editing windows open for the same content, and 
you can easily loose data when you save at the wrong time in the wrong 
editor. Better to include a real raw editing *mode* which can also have 
a keyboard shortcut. It would be a bit more work, but I don't think 
revolutionary development work will be needed for that.


-- Christoph

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-04 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 00:49, Christoph Zwerschke c...@online.de wrote:
 Am 03.03.2012 18:41, schrieb Dotan Cohen:

 And why would casual users know this?

 Well, to be honest I don't think zim is intended for casual users and
 never will because it is not intended to be a wysiwyg editor. People who
 want that wysiwyg stlye should use applications like OneNote or Evernote or
 MyBase or MyInfo or MyNotesKeeper. The special thing about zim is that it
 knows wiki syntax, and knowing the basics of that syntax is simply required
 to use it. It's explained very well in the online help. The other special
 thing about zim is that edit and view mode are not separated. People who
 want that separation of modes should use applications like ConnectedText or
 WikidPad or RedNoteBook.


If this is the case than that should be made clear. As it is, Zim
cannot handle arbitrary input and users are not likely to expect that.

Also, you might like to note that there is an Edit Source function in
the Tools menu. That is the place where one should be entering data in
raw format, not in the standard main window. A possible improvement
would be to have the Edit Source function edit the source in the Zim
window, with the cursor placed right where it was when in the standard
mode. Text entered in the standard mode should be automatically
escaped by Zim when converted to Source. That would solve all the
mentioned issues. I will write an RFE for this, give me a few minutes.


 The fact that I don't need to switch between edit and view mode is what
 makes zim so unique, and that paradigm really should be kept. For instance,
 if you see a mistake or type on a page, you simply go and correct it. You
 don't need to switch to an edit mode, search for the place with the error
 there, fix it, and switch back to view mode.


That could still be possible with the suggestion that I made above.
Thanks. I do agree with this benefit of Zim as you mention.


 But of course, this paradigm also has some disadvantages like the one you
 mention. I'm sure a lot can and will be done to attenuate these and make the
 tool even more usable. But you need to understand that they are somewhat
 inherent to the edit/view paradigm zim is using.

 One thing that surely should be added is a way to easily switch the editor
 to raw mode where it does not do any rendering. It should not be
 understood or used as the default edit mode, but it may be sometimes useful
 to see or edit the raw version of a page.



See the aforementioned Edit Source mode.


 I see. Although I agree with your assessment that the data could be
 recovered, it is still lost for Zim users. You and I might be able
 to open the source file and retrieve the data. I would not expect
 that of the casual user. That is quite the reason that I think that
 it is a bit early to promote Zim to the casual user.


 See above regarding casual users. A raw editing mode could help, but even
 that might not be found or understood by a casual user. Just like copying
 the data with Copy as... - Wiki to get the raw data.

 How about Python code, which maycontain triple quotes? Zim itself is
 written in Python.

 But zim's triple quotes must be on a line for themselves, which rarely
 happens in Python snippets, and you can always indent your Python snippets
 to guarantee no triple quotes are at the beginning of a line. Also, Python
 normally uses triple double quotes for docstrings, not single quotes. So in
 reality, it's not much of an issue.



Python code was just an example. How about ASCII art? The fact is that
Zim should handle arbitrary input. Any argument to the contrary means
that Zim will be inappropriate for some use case or another.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-04 Thread Christoph Zwerschke

Am 04.03.2012 11:15, schrieb Christoph Zwerschke:

Agree. Except opening an external editor can be dangerous because then
you have two disconnected editing windows open for the same content, and
you can easily loose data when you save at the wrong time in the wrong
editor. Better to include a real raw editing *mode* which can also have
a keyboard shortcut. It would be a bit more work, but I don't think
revolutionary development work will be needed for that.


By the way, as Dotan just pointed out, the possiblity to open the raw 
text with an external editor (of your choice) already exists, under the 
tools menu.


I totally overlooked that. The reason is that I'm not using zim on a 
daily basis yet, because there is no practicable way to import my old 
data as html/rtf. That's for me the only larger issue. But I expect this 
will be solved in future versions, or maybe I will work on that issue 
myself if I find the time.


-- Christoph

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-04 Thread Dotan Cohen
Here are two issues to help improve the situation:

RFE: Edit source in Zim window
https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/946224

Escape input when translating to Source
https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/946229

-- 
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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-04 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 12:15, Christoph Zwerschke c...@online.de wrote:
 Am 04.03.2012 07:19, schrieb Ulf Bro:

 The editor I use in everyday life is Vim (Vi). Here you switch
 between modes all the time. But you do so without taking your fingers
 off the keyboard. A similar edit mode in Zim would be no harm so
 long as one could keep the mouse out of the business.


 That's true, but the big difference is that in vi, the data and its
 rendering doesn't change at all when you switch between modes. vi doesn't
 show any rendered data, it only changes the accepted keyboard commands. But
 when you switch between rendered display and raw data, the content of your
 editor window changes, and usually it's not even possible to adapt the
 cursor position. So when you spot a typo in view mode, and then switch to
 edit mode, you need to find the location of that typo in the markup again.
 This is what makes separate edit/view modes so unproductive for everyday use
 in a personal wiki in my opionon.

I have filed in RFE to make this easier: when switching to Edit Source
mode Zim should keep the cursor in the same location as it was in
normal mode:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/946224


 I think switching to raw mode should only
 be used as a last resort in zim, not be encouraged as the standard way of
 editing content.


Then why do you prefer that you can type //some text// to have it
italicized in the normal window? What is wrong with Ctrl-I before and
after? It is exactly the confusion between raw/source mode and normal
mode that hinders Zim from handling arbitrary input.

In other words, there already exists shortcuts for headings and
formating in Zim, with the Ctrl modifiers just like in any other
formatted editor. If one wants to type wiki-syntax directly, then have
an easy way to switch to wiki-syntax / raw / source mode.


 But speaking of vi, it's a perfect example for great and mature software
 that is still not usable for the casual user. Without getting aquainted
 with the two input modes and the keyboard commands, users will only be
 frustrated with vi.


Agreed, even as a heavy VIM user myself (typing even now in GVIM!).
That is exactly why having the wiki syntax active in the normal mode
is confusing. Casual users will not already know the wiki syntax.


 One thing that surely should be added is a way to easily switch
 the editor to raw mode where it does not do any rendering. It
 should not be understood or used as the default edit mode, but it
 may be sometimes useful to see or edit the raw version of a page.


 That is the point I'd like to support. With one key, and this could
 be a function key like F2 for example, you could open an external
 editor in a new window of course on the currently displayed page (im
 my case that would be Vim) and do whatever editing you find suitable.
 Then after saving, do a reload with Ctrl-R and that's it.

 On the other hand you mostly really shouldn't need to do that.
 Therefore there is no need to waste time doing revolutionary
 development on Zim's code to enable raw editing. Just a key to open
 an external editor and that's it.


 Agree. Except opening an external editor can be dangerous because then you
 have two disconnected editing windows open for the same content, and you can
 easily loose data when you save at the wrong time in the wrong editor.
 Better to include a real raw editing *mode* which can also have a keyboard
 shortcut. It would be a bit more work, but I don't think revolutionary
 development work will be needed for that.


Exactly what I had proposed! Please comment on that RFE mentiond above.

Thanks!


-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-04 Thread Christoph Zwerschke

Am 04.03.2012 11:17, schrieb Dotan Cohen:
 Also, you might like to note that there is an Edit Source function in
 the Tools menu. That is the place where one should be entering data in
 raw format, not in the standard main window. A possible improvement
 would be to have the Edit Source function edit the source in the Zim
 window, with the cursor placed right where it was when in the standard
 mode. Text entered in the standard mode should be automatically
 escaped by Zim when converted to Source. That would solve all the
 mentioned issues. I will write an RFE for this, give me a few minutes.

Thanks for mentioning the edit source function, I overlooked that. My 
only issue with that function is that opening content in another editing 
window is somewhat problematic as it really may cause data loss. It's 
still great that it is *possible*, because the external editor may have 
some advantages for some people, e.g. you may prefer editing text in vi 
or a distraction less text editor or whatever. But it should not be the 
standard way of usage. Therefore the possibility to switch into a raw 
editing mode in the same zim window would still be desirable.


Your idea that the cursor should be placed right where it was when in 
the standard mode is also desirable, and it looks easy, but it's very 
difficult to implement programmatically. The closest thing I have seen 
was ConnectedText where you can mark a part of the text, and then 
ConnectedText would search the same text in the editor window and place 
the cursor at that location. But of course that's not really foolproof 
(e.g. when the search text exists several times) and still a bit 
inconvenient because you need to mark an appropriate text passage first.


Also, it's not clear to me what you mean when you say that entered text 
should be automatically escaped by zim. The problem is that if you 
enter **bold** then you want your asterisks be interpreted by zim, not 
escaped, but if you enter 2**3 + 2**4 then you probably don't want them 
to be interpreted, but it's impossible for zim to distinguish these 
cases *automatically*.


Maybe a solution would be to allow different modes for pasting text to 
zim, similar to the different modes for copying text from zim.


 For instance, if you see a mistake or type on a page, you simply go
 and correct it. You don't need to switch to an edit mode, search
 for the place with the error there, fix it, and switch back to view
 mode.

 That could still be possible with the suggestion that I made above.

Yes, it the problem of mapping cursor positions in source text and 
rendered view could be solved, but as I said it's a really difficult 
thing. And even then, you will still have to switch editing modes which 
is not so convenient.


 Python code was just an example. How about ASCII art? The fact is that
 Zim should handle arbitrary input. Any argument to the contrary means
 that Zim will be inappropriate for some use case or another.

If you use triple quotes and indent your content, I think you can 
include arbitary input already, though I agree that's not so convenient.


One solution that comes to my mind is to allow embedding external text 
files (similar to embedding images) which would be rendered literally in 
a monospaced font, maybe with syntax highlighting depending on the file 
type.


-- Christoph

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-04 Thread Christoph Zwerschke

Am 04.03.2012 11:48, schrieb Dotan Cohen:
 Then why do you prefer that you can type //some text// to have it
 italicized in the normal window? What is wrong with Ctrl-I before and
 after? It is exactly the confusion between raw/source mode and normal
 mode that hinders Zim from handling arbitrary input.

 In other words, there already exists shortcuts for headings and
 formating in Zim, with the Ctrl modifiers just like in any other
 formatted editor. If one wants to type wiki-syntax directly, then have
 an easy way to switch to wiki-syntax / raw / source mode.

The advantage is that you can write wiki syntax everywhere, not only in 
zim, and if you are accustomed to that syntax, it's easier to use than 
having to remember all these Ctrl/Alt-keyboard shortcuts. Ok, Ctrl-I for 
italics is easy, but what's the shortcut for code again? And how do you 
enter a bulleted list? I like the idea that my data is stored in a very 
simple format that can be exported and converted easily, and that is so 
simple that I can edit it directly.


I have tried both wysiwyg tools and tools with a strict separation of 
edit/view modes in the past, and I had problems with both. Zim appeared 
to me as a middle ground combining advantages of both approaches.


But ok, maybe the problems I experienced with other tools are only based 
on shortcomings in the software, not in the paradigms themselves.


For instance, Evernote is great. But there is no simple way to enter 
code snippets or shell commands inside a page. I have to manually mark 
the snippet, select a monospaced font, maybe change the size or color. 
Similarly, there is no way to mark a level 1 or 2 heading. Again, I have 
to mark the heading, and change the font size. And then all you have is 
formatted text, no semantic markup that could be used when exporting to 
other systems. Maybe this could be solved by Evernote adding simple 
semantic markup and ways to export that, but they never implement such 
things because they want to be attractive to the casual user who 
doesn't care about such things.


Likewise, ConnectedText is great. But having to switch between edit and 
view mode gives me headaches because the text looks completely different 
in both modes and it's often difficult to find the right location. Maybe 
this could be solved by automatically mapping the cursor location 
between modes, but I think switching view modes is still inconvenient in 
everyday use, I want to have living data that can be easily accessed and 
altered without switching modes.


-- Christoph

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-04 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 13:07, Christoph Zwerschke c...@online.de wrote:
 Also, it's not clear to me what you mean when you say that entered text
 should be automatically escaped by zim. The problem is that if you enter
 **bold** then you want your asterisks be interpreted by zim, not escaped,
 but if you enter 2**3 + 2**4 then you probably don't want them to be
 interpreted, but it's impossible for zim to distinguish these cases
 *automatically*.


The idea of  entered text should be automatically escaped means that
**bold** will not be made bold. Rather, users who want to enter Wiki
syntax would do that in source / raw mode. Isn't that what **bold** is
(wiki source code)? Why does Source mode exist otherwise?

Of course, there would ideally be a keyboard shortcut to easily enable
source / raw mode and to switch back to normal mode. To make text bold
in normal mode without entering source / raw mode, one has the Ctrl-B
shortcut.


 Maybe a solution would be to allow different modes for pasting text to zim,
 similar to the different modes for copying text from zim.


Right, that would be normal mode and source / raw mode.


-- 
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http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-04 Thread Christoph Zwerschke

Am 04.03.2012 16:59, schrieb Dotan Cohen:
 The idea of  entered text should be automatically escaped means that
 **bold** will not be made bold. Rather, users who want to enter Wiki
 syntax would do that in source / raw mode. Isn't that what **bold** is
 (wiki source code)? Why does Source mode exist otherwise?

 Of course, there would ideally be a keyboard shortcut to easily enable
 source / raw mode and to switch back to normal mode. To make text bold
 in normal mode without entering source / raw mode, one has the Ctrl-B
 shortcut.

Ok, thanks for the clarification. I think I understand your reasoning 
much better now :-)


Anyway, I still like the idea that I can type in wiki syntax, because 
I'm doing that in a lot of other places already, e.g. when writing ascii 
emails or google+ posts or whatever. I also mentioned bullet lists which 
can be input more easily in wiki syntax.


I know my argument is a bit weak because Zim uses DokuWiki syntax which 
is a bit more obscure than e.g. Markdown which is more universal and 
follows more closely the way people format ASCII emails etc. anyway 
e.g. *bold* instead of **bold**. In fact the idea behind Markdown is 
that it is easy-to-read *and* easy-to-write. The whole idea is that you 
don't need a different mode or editor when writing text.


These articles explain the idea very well:
http://hiltmon.com/blog/2012/02/20/the-markdown-mindset/
http://512pixels.net/markdown-new-word51/

Therefore, from my point of view it would make sense to change Zim to be 
based on Markdown instead of Dokuwiki syntax. I think Markdown is also 
better supported as source language by Pandoc. But I'm aware that this 
is a very big change that requires a lot of work. A request for Markdown 
already exists: https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/495898


Concerning your original issue, I guess the best solution would be to 
add an *option* for disabling/enabling escaping of wiki style input, so 
everybody can be happy.


One issue that needs to be solved before is to implement a way of 
escaping wiki syntax besides triple quoting. I have mentioned that in 
your RFE already. Markdown has escape mechanisms, e.g. you can write 
\*notbold\*, but I think Zim and DokuWiki can't do that yet.


-- Christoph

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-03 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 11:29, Christoph Zwerschke c...@online.de wrote:
 Am 02.03.2012 08:53, schrieb Dotan Cohen:

 This bug has a real-life example:
 https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/585300

 Dotan, I think the problem is that what you are labeling a data loss issue
 is no data loss issue at all. In your example, the data is displayed without
 the **, because these are interpreted as bold. But the ** are still
 there in the text file, nothing is lost.


I see. Although I agree with your assessment that the data could be
recovered, it is still lost for Zim users. You and I might be able to
open the source file and retrieve the data. I would not expect that of
the casual user. That is quite the reason that I think that it is a
bit early to promote Zim to the casual user.


 If you do an ordinary copy of that example snippet, the ** will not be
 copied, but if you copy as wiki syntax, and paste it into an editor, the
 ** will be pasted as well.


The text is question was copied from a web page in Firefox and pasted into Zim.


 You can and should also surround such code snippets with triple quotes, then
 they will be treated as verbatim blocks.


And why would casual users know this? How about Python code, which may
contain triple quotes? Zim itself is written in Python.


 This has all been pointed out on the bug tracker, so I don't understand why
 you're still talking about data loss.


Because it affects casual users.

-- 
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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-03 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 16:17, Adam Porter a...@alphapapa.net wrote:
 On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 13:33, Dotan Cohen dotanco...@gmail.com wrote:
 However, Zim is a bit unpolished in some key areas and I feel that
 these paper cuts should be addressed before actively promoting the
 application.

 Respectfully, I disagree.  I generally support the idea, Release
 early, release often.  Zim is more a project than a product--and
 being a project, what we need are more interested parties who may
 contribute in whatever ways they can, including spreading the word.
 Zim is far beyond the point of being vaporware that needs to have
 something to show before releasing--it's a great tool right now.  :)

If is to be promoted as a project in look of parties who may
contribute in whatever ways they can, then I agree. If Zim is to be
promoted as a product ready for end users, then I disagree.

I reiterate that my motivation is constructive criticism. I love and
appreciate Zim very much.

-- 
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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-03 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 17:38,  hans...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 2:53 PM, Dotan Cohen dotanco...@gmail.com wrote:

 Possibly, and I appreciate your telling me that. I don't see where I
 have been forceful but I'm sure that you're right. I am certainly no
 diplomat!


 It's quite possible to be fully honest and brutal about objective facts,
 while expressing one's opinions with courtesy and tact, not least by clearly
 distinguishing between the two domains.


Thanks. Would you mind pointing out where I was without courtesy or
tact? I agree that my approach could be improved. My own language has
much less adjectives and synonyms than English, so I may be using
words with negative connotation where words with positive connotation
exist but I don't realise the difference.

Thank you for identifying that the problem is with my style, and not
with my intent.


 Like Chris, I think you'll find if you look at the original file itself
 outside of Zim, you'll find that your original content is intact (other than
 the meta-header)

 It's just the rendering within Zim that makes it look different.

 Do let us know if that's not the case.


Thank you. I address this in my on-list reply a few minutes ago.


-- 
Dotan Cohen

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-03 Thread Christoph Zwerschke

Am 03.03.2012 18:41, schrieb Dotan Cohen:
 And why would casual users know this?

Well, to be honest I don't think zim is intended for casual users and 
never will because it is not intended to be a wysiwyg editor. People 
who want that wysiwyg stlye should use applications like OneNote or 
Evernote or MyBase or MyInfo or MyNotesKeeper. The special thing about 
zim is that it knows wiki syntax, and knowing the basics of that syntax 
is simply required to use it. It's explained very well in the online 
help. The other special thing about zim is that edit and view mode are 
not separated. People who want that separation of modes should use 
applications like ConnectedText or WikidPad or RedNoteBook.


The fact that I don't need to switch between edit and view mode is what 
makes zim so unique, and that paradigm really should be kept. For 
instance, if you see a mistake or type on a page, you simply go and 
correct it. You don't need to switch to an edit mode, search for the 
place with the error there, fix it, and switch back to view mode.


But of course, this paradigm also has some disadvantages like the one 
you mention. I'm sure a lot can and will be done to attenuate these and 
make the tool even more usable. But you need to understand that they are 
somewhat inherent to the edit/view paradigm zim is using.


One thing that surely should be added is a way to easily switch the 
editor to raw mode where it does not do any rendering. It should not 
be understood or used as the default edit mode, but it may be sometimes 
useful to see or edit the raw version of a page.



I see. Although I agree with your assessment that the data could be
recovered, it is still lost for Zim users. You and I might be able
to open the source file and retrieve the data. I would not expect
that of the casual user. That is quite the reason that I think that
it is a bit early to promote Zim to the casual user.


See above regarding casual users. A raw editing mode could help, but 
even that might not be found or understood by a casual user. Just like 
copying the data with Copy as... - Wiki to get the raw data.


 How about Python code, which maycontain triple quotes? Zim itself is
 written in Python.

But zim's triple quotes must be on a line for themselves, which rarely 
happens in Python snippets, and you can always indent your Python 
snippets to guarantee no triple quotes are at the beginning of a line. 
Also, Python normally uses triple double quotes for docstrings, not 
single quotes. So in reality, it's not much of an issue.


-- Christoph

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-03 Thread Ulf Bro
 ... The other special thing about zim is that edit
 and view mode are not separated...
 
 The fact that I don't need to switch between edit and view mode is
 what makes zim so unique, and that paradigm really should be kept.
 For instance, if you see a mistake or type on a page, you simply go
 and correct it. You don't need to switch to an edit mode, search for
 the place with the error there, fix it, and switch back to view mode.

The editor I use in everyday life is Vim (Vi). Here you switch between
modes all the time. But you do so without taking your fingers off the
keyboard. A similar edit mode in Zim would be no harm so long as one
could keep the mouse out of the business.

 One thing that surely should be added is a way to easily switch the 
 editor to raw mode where it does not do any rendering. It should
 not be understood or used as the default edit mode, but it may be
 sometimes useful to see or edit the raw version of a page.

That is the point I'd like to support. With one key, and this could be
a function key like F2 for example, you could open an external editor
in a new window of course on the currently displayed page (im my case
that would be Vim) and do whatever editing you find suitable. Then after
saving, do a reload with Ctrl-R and that's it.



On the other hand you mostly really shouldn't need to do that.
Therefore there is no need to waste time doing revolutionary
development on Zim's code to enable raw editing. Just a key to open an
external editor and that's it.

Ulf

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-02 Thread Christoph Zwerschke

Am 02.03.2012 08:53, schrieb Dotan Cohen:
 This bug has a real-life example:
 https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/585300

Dotan, I think the problem is that what you are labeling a data loss 
issue is no data loss issue at all. In your example, the data is 
displayed without the **, because these are interpreted as bold. But 
the ** are still there in the text file, nothing is lost.


If you do an ordinary copy of that example snippet, the ** will not be 
copied, but if you copy as wiki syntax, and paste it into an editor, the 
** will be pasted as well.


You can and should also surround such code snippets with triple quotes, 
then they will be treated as verbatim blocks.


This has all been pointed out on the bug tracker, so I don't understand 
why you're still talking about data loss.


-- Christoph

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-02 Thread hansbkk
On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 2:53 PM, Dotan Cohen dotanco...@gmail.com wrote:

 Possibly, and I appreciate your telling me that. I don't see where I
 have been forceful but I'm sure that you're right. I am certainly no
 diplomat!


It's quite possible to be fully honest and brutal about objective facts,
while expressing one's opinions with courtesy and tact, not least by
clearly distinguishing between the two domains.



 This bug has a real-life example:
 https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/585300


Like Chris, I think you'll find if you look at the original file itself
outside of Zim, you'll find that your original content is intact (other
than the meta-header)

It's just the rendering within Zim that makes it look different.

Do let us know if that's not the case.
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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-01 Thread hansbkk
On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 4:49 PM, Dotan Cohen dotanco...@gmail.com wrote:

 The dataloss and the fact that Zim cannot handle arbitrary text for input
 are the reasons why Zim is unsuitable for use. The mislabel icon and
 reappearing links are reasons why Zim seems only half-baked.


One of my many use cases is storing code samples. If this is considered a
 valid use case then the two primary issues that I mention must be addressed.


It is possible that your IMO overly forceful style of expressing your ideas
will work against your goals.

 cannot handle arbitrary text

While I'm not storing code in the normal sense at this point, many of my
source file trees **are** marked up with other syntaxes, so in those cases
I'd prefer to be able to turn off Zim's rendering. However I haven't yet
come across any arbitrary **changes** to my data or actual data loss - so
far they're just issues visual appearance - could you be more specific
about any issues where Zim actually changes your data against your wishes
(other than the headers of course)?
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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-03-01 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 03:29,  hans...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 4:49 PM, Dotan Cohen dotanco...@gmail.com wrote:

 The dataloss and the fact that Zim cannot handle arbitrary text for input
 are the reasons why Zim is unsuitable for use. The mislabel icon and
 reappearing links are reasons why Zim seems only half-baked.


 One of my many use cases is storing code samples. If this is considered a
 valid use case then the two primary issues that I mention must be addressed.


 It is possible that your IMO overly forceful style of expressing your ideas
 will work against your goals.


Possibly, and I appreciate your telling me that. I don't see where I
have been forceful but I'm sure that you're right. I am certainly no
diplomat!


 cannot handle arbitrary text

 While I'm not storing code in the normal sense at this point, many of my
 source file trees **are** marked up with other syntaxes, so in those cases
 I'd prefer to be able to turn off Zim's rendering. However I haven't yet
 come across any arbitrary **changes** to my data or actual data loss - so
 far they're just issues visual appearance - could you be more specific about
 any issues where Zim actually changes your data against your wishes (other
 than the headers of course)?

This bug has a real-life example:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/585300

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-02-29 Thread Ulf Bro
 possibilities. So I was wondering that perhaps we can start to collect
 all users' cases, that is a small description about how you use Zim
 Wiki in your daily routine.

I agree with you. No problem. I can make a description any time.

Ulf

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Re: [Zim-wiki] Call for user cases ?

2012-02-29 Thread Dotan Cohen
One more issue that I should have mentioned that needs to be addressed
as it makes Zim seem as immature software:

Links come back after closing Zim
https://bugs.launchpad.net/zim/+bug/678250

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com

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