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[Just a sidenote, I ended up registering on lugnet to post this, Hi Everybody]
In lugnet.admin.general, thou, Todd Lehman (lehman@javanet.com),
hast wrytted...
> Here are a few details on LUGNET member pages... Nothing in just stone yet,
> but that's why this is being posted. Looking for opinions on how useful
> this sounds to you...
Todd,
I work in online publishing of scientific journals, and well you drew me out
of the woodwork. You've obviously put a lot of thought into providing a
means of presenting formated text for member pages, but it sounds like
you're loading the shotgun for the fly on the wall. I've created (and work
with) a few different kinds of proprietery mark-up/scripting languages.
I've worked a lot with SGML-based parsers and know my way around regex
engines nicely. I'd have to say, when I consider "rolling my own", I look
first to see if it can be done another way. Here's things to consider:
1. Support. What you create may start out small and easy, but maintaining
a parser can be a PITA. Granted, the type of markup you describe
doesn't show behavior of feeping creaturism, it's *always* important to
consider how easy it'll be to 1) extend and 2) have others support
(codewise).
2. HTML is already there, and most who'd be interested in creating a
members web page will very likely know enough basic HTML to do the
job. There are many many many tools to help validate/filter HTML tags
(hell regexs will do a lot for you). Creating a proprietary language
means you have to help the end user learn it. There are mountains of
tutorials and documentation on HTML that nearly every question can be
refered to. Your own language == you're the customer support desk.
This is *very* important, in that the more people you have using your
language, the more people need help from you.
3. Who are you trying to defend against? These are member pages, which
would theoretically only be able to be modified by accepted members of
the group. Inappropriate or abusive use of HTML can be a violation of
membership, etc. Also, as above, you can create filters which only
allow a strict subset of HTML. You could even get very picky and create
your own DTD which contains only the desired subset of HTML you want,
and as someone else, mentioned use nsgmls, (along with sgmlspl, a VERY
awesome perl parser extention, I have more info if you're interested).
This is what I would do, if I was very concerned about
security/integrity, yet wanted to use an "open" mark-up.
The only benefit I can think to not using HTML is that is not really a good
language to compose with. But as you already stated, the type of text
formating you want available is fairly limited, so the amount of tagging
that people will have to do is limited.
> See \i{Spot} run. See <I>Spot</I> run. italics
> See \b{Spot} run. See <B>Spot</I> run. boldface
> See \i{\b{Spot} run}. See <I><B>Spot</B> run</I>. italics & boldface
> \sect{Spot Drinks Blood} <H3>Spot Drinks Blood</H3> section header
Mmmm Latex. Easier to type out than HTML, but not the easiest thing in the
world to help people learn (although I assume you'd be using an extremely
limited subset).
> See (i Spot) run. See <I>Spot</I> run. italics
> See (b Spot) run. See <B>Spot</I> run. boldface
> See (i (b Spot) run). See <I><B>Spot</B> run</I>. italics & boldface
> (sect Spot Drinks Blood) <H3>Spot Drinks Blood</H3> section header
Never seen before, looks Lispy.
> See ''Spot'' run. See <I>Spot</I> run. italics
> See '''Spot''' run. See <B>Spot</I> run. boldface
> -n/a- See <I><B>Spot</B> run</I>. italics & boldface
> '''Spot Drinks Blood''' <H3>Spot Drinks Blood</H3> section header
Don't like at all. Where have you seen this used?
> The reason I like it is because it seems intuitive, friendly, relatively
> easy to type, and because normal text rarely uses [, ], {, }, <, and >.
>
> Now, what's shown above there is only { } and [ ] ... That leaves < > for
> hyperlinks!
Simple, but this system is not very expandable (every time you need a new
convention, you need to use a new character of some sort).
> Anyone know of any alternative markup possibilites worth considering? Any
> success stories? Horror stories?
Also, another question, what about text that has been parsed? How are
members to edit old content? Do you have to have another parser to parse
back from HTML to the proprietary markup?
I can't offer any true horror stories along the lines of "oh my god, using
my own markup language cost me my job." But if you view the above as merely
a side-project, it won't be. It all comes down to a matter of time and what
you want to do with it. I contend using HTML will be easier to build,
maintain and support. A validation system can be created via a DTD that
contains an HTML subset using nsgmls/sgmlspl; this will take more time (if
you aren't familiar with it already), although this security aspect is not
something I see as a vital concern.
huzzah,
Micah
--
perl -e's;^;nsiC%by:n19%o>o2z4on19%`"t2z`fn3o.%.2o.z.2o.g4og.5o.g.4o.4%;;\
s;$;f%.2o.n`fP"Y2>bP"Y2>bz`fzd2>t%`"Y>%`Pz)2>bgfP"Y2>bn%p#f8%.oP"#n%p#p;;\
s;$;.o>%d>(z#n____`Y>bod>Pt%`Yf2">o%__n;;s;#;ppfz;g;s;p;fg;g;s;_;ofo%;g;;\
s;z;2%;g;s;g;3%;g;s;f;3>;g;s;(\d+)(.);$2x$1;eg;y;t>%nC;\x278 \ng;;print;'
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: markup syntax for member pages
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| (...) Hi! Welcome! I'll try to respond to things point-by-point below... (...) Me too. But just because something -can- be done another way, doesn't mean the other way is necessarily better. I can grind wheat with the butt-end of a Coke bottle, but (...) (25 years ago, 3-Jul-99, to lugnet.admin.general, lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | markup syntax for member pages
|
| Hiya, Here are a few details on LUGNET member pages... Nothing in just stone yet, but that's why this is being posted. Looking for opinions on how useful this sounds to you... -- Member pages on LUGNET will initially be text-based. Someday if we (...) (25 years ago, 1-Jul-99, to lugnet.admin.general, lugnet.general)
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