BUGS! - Page 8

testing: b*d

[edit]Success :)

Testing inside code ~~~ tags

b*d  // Not excaped
b\*d  // Escaped

Is this more confusing than BBCode? I'm starting to have regrets making the switch :(

That one will be confusing to new posters because they won't realize what's going on. Just like anything else, for me its just a learning curve. Any other special characters that need to be escaped ?

I see from my previous post that the * doesn't need to be escaped when used inside code tags, which will not have a problem for anyone.

Overall, are you finding Markdown a better or worse solution than BBCode?

I really didn't use much BBCode either, just code, color, quote, link and occasionally list tags. I think BBCode's Link and Quote tags were easier to use, and have not yet used mardown's List. I use Code tags the most, and markdown ~~~ is just as easy as BBCode [code][/code], actually a little easier since its less typing (I don't use the buttons at the top of the editor).

As for Heading and Sub-Heading -- never used it and probably never will. I would imagine Davy using them quite a bit.

Just FYI, the link: http://www.daniweb.com/stats/toplist is broken for me.

Personal preference? I preferred the old style of formatting.

Just FYI, the link: http://www.daniweb.com/stats/toplist is broken for me.

I've got some error too. It makes me automatically log out after click that link.

Overall, are you finding Markdown a better or worse solution than BBCode?

(Hey, I've just discovered "Quote-Auto-Paste").

Markdown is definitely the future. Instant, automatic preview is probably the single most distictive feature and is a big plus as is backtick-backtick for inline code. I also like the non-standard tildas for a code block without needing to indent - that's neat.

There's still a few improvements I would hope for in the Daniweb implementation:

• Preview should be a 100% reliable representation of the final rendering, which is not quite the case. (Covered at least in part earlier in this topic I think).
• ctrl-B and ctrl-I should act as keyboard shortcuts for bold and italic. In Opera, unless intercepted by javascript, ctrl-B opens Bookmarks, which is frustrating every time it happens.
• The "Link" control should work the same as in the old BB editor (and in other implmenetations of Markdown); namely after typing text, highlight it, then click "Link" to open a URL dialog. As it stands, it's more or less the other way round, and I get it wrong almost every time.
• In the editor, cursor movement with arrow keys is not 100% reliable, at least in Opera.
• Code line numbers and zebra-striping should appear without needing to refresh the page.

I think that's about it, at least for now.

Airshow

I've got some error too. It makes me automatically log out after click that link.

That link wasn't supposed to have made it into production yet! Sorry about that. :) Soon!

(Hey, I've just discovered "Quote-Auto-Paste").

It's auto COPY and auto PASTE. Just highlight the text and click in the editor where you want it to appear. No clipboard involved.

Preview should be a 100% reliable representation of the final rendering, which is not quite the case.

Agreed, and that's still a work in progress.

ctrl-B and ctrl-I should act as keyboard shortcuts for bold and italic. In Opera, unless intercepted by javascript, ctrl-B opens Bookmarks, which is frustrating every time it happens.

I will not use JavaScript to override default browser functionality. There may be some other people who use Opera specifically for its Bookmarks feature, for example.

Markdown is definitely the future.

My concerns are that nothing you liked about it can't be done with BBCode ;)

The "Link" control should work the same as in the old BB editor

Agree -- It is so clumsy to use that I don't use it at all any more but just post the link.

My concerns are that nothing you liked about it can't be done with BBCode ;)

Nah, that gives old BB far too much credit. The BIG difference is preview, which, in the case of BBCode, involves a round trip to the server. OK, you could do it with AJAX rather than page refresh but realistically not keystroke by keystroke.

The great thing about Markdown is that interpretation is (or can be) client-side.

I've not played with Markdown yet but I'm sure there must be a way to employ the same interpreter for posts and editor - thus ensuring reliable preview. On the surface this doesn't seem difficult ..... (how many times have I said that).

The BIG difference is preview, which, in the case of BBCode, involves a round trip to the server.

This could be accomplished with bbcode just as easily as with Markdown. Really.

The great thing about Markdown is that interpretation is (or can be) client-side.

Now that's giving Markdown too much credit.

It's auto COPY and auto PASTE.

Oooh yes, so it is.

Dani, are you saying that in this implementation Markdown is interpreted server-side?

Yes.

... and the code is infinitely messier than parsing bbcode. INFINITELY. And more sensitive.

Wow, I'd better do some more reading.

Markdown is better not because it has great preview etc. but because you don't require special keywords to do the formatting which is so much easier for the end user. Markdown is clearly inspired by the newsgroup way of doing stuff. For e.g. I don't need to use the pseudo XML syntax with square brackets to tell the parser that I want so and so text segment quoted. I can just use > and be done with it. Similarly with bold and italics. What's more, Markdown text doesn't look like a load of markup text written to do some simple formatting. It just works with the minimum possilbe noise.

The problem, unfortunately, is that Markdown is also much more sensitive and not as forgiving as BBCode. For example, if using fenced bbcode, the tilde characters need to be on a line by themselves, or when posting intented code, there needs to be a blank line at a the top/bottom. I think it requires more meticulous posting than bbcode, which just seems more forgiving.

The other thing I'm finding that I'm not liking about Markdown is that there are so many characters that need escaping. With bbcode, it was just what was in square brackets. With markdown, for example #include turns into <h1>include</h1>.

test

#include <stdiol.h>

end of test. # doesn't need to be escaped when used within ~~~ code tags

What were you testing?

Your statement that # needs to be escaped when posting code. But then if the poster doesn't use code tags then its a problem.

Right, when the poster doesn't format their code.

# header has only one space before (this is not header in preview, but magenta in text box)

not # header as word before #

So the problem of parsing # is only without any white space. Even first time I started this post with space before and the header was still header not #.

Of course you could continue the danification of Markdown, like not allowing _ italics inside words, to require space after # header mark (and that space should be eaten invisible as part of tag) (that would pretify unindented C(++) code)

I will not use JavaScript to override default browser functionality. There may be some other people who use Opera specifically for its Bookmarks feature, for example.

Eh!? When an editor has focus, ctl-B for bold, ctl-U for underline and ctl-I for italic are the expected behaviours. Your old BB editor did this and every other Markdown editor I've used does it. Not to provide this functionality would fly in the face of convention and alienate far more of your members than it would ever appease.

The fact that vBulletin did it is a horrible way to win me over, but nevertheless I'll look into it :)

It seems you have a real downer on vBulletin. Were your Google/Panda woes the impetus behind writing your own forum app?