On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 8:53 PM, Jay Ashworth <[email protected]> wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Brion Vibber" <[email protected]> > > > Requiring people to do all their document creation at this level is > > like asking people to punch binary ASCII codes into cards by hand -- it's > > low-level grunt work that computers can handle for us. We have > > keyboards and monitors to replace punchcards; not only has this let most > people stop > > worrying about memorizing ASCII code points, it's let us go beyond > > fixed-width ASCII text (a monitor emulating a teletype, which was > > really a friendlier version of punch cards) to have things like > _graphics_. > > Text can be in different sizes, different styles, and different > languages. We > > can see pictures; we can draw pictures; we can use colors and shapes to > create > > a far richer, more creative experience for the user. > > None of which will be visible on phones from my Blackberry on down, which, > IIRC, make up more than 50% of the Internet access points on the planet. > > Minimalism is your friend; I can presently *edit* wikipedia on that BB, > with no CSS, JS, or images. That's A Good Thing. > A good document structure would allow useful editing for both simple paragraphs and complex features like tables and templates even on such primitive devices, by giving a dedicated editing interface the information it needs to address individual paragraphs, template parameters, table cells, etc. I would go so far as to say that this sort of fallback interface would in fact be far superior to editing a big blob of wikitext on a small cell phone screen -- finding the bit you want to edit in a huge paragraph full of references and image thumbnails is pretty dreadful at the best of times. -- brion _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
