Our wiki software is ugly

[Scott Ritchie]

Our wiki software needs a major update, especially as we start to expect
users to actually read it.

For instance, look at the FAQ page: 

Then, click on edit and see how it should look.  From what I can tell,
there are a few obvious errors:

1) The wiki software is completely ignoring line breaks.  I could hit
return 4 times and the HTML rendered would be on subsequent lines,
without a break or paragraph tag between them.
2) For some completely strange reason, if you make a list item that
includes a link then the entire list item will be in a smaller font.
This makes for extremely weird and inconsistent lists when a link to
another wiki page is included in some, but not all, of the items.
3) Header text is almost impossible to figure out right, and there is
absolutely no standard of what we should do.

Is there a reason we chose the software we did?  Would it be too hard to
migrate to something else, or at least fix the display bugs?

Thanks,
Scott Ritchie

[AlexanderS]

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:05:58 -0700
Scott Ritchie <scott(a)open-vote.org> wrote:
> Our wiki software needs a major update, especially as we start to
> expect users to actually read it.
>
> For instance, look at the FAQ page:
>
> Then, click on edit and see how it should look.  From what I can tell,
> there are a few obvious errors:

Hi,
btw. if you press preview on the edit page, it looks like it should xD
Maybe its only a problem with the style of the final wiki page?

Alexander
> 1) The wiki software is completely ignoring line breaks.  I could hit
> return 4 times and the HTML rendered would be on subsequent lines,
> without a break or paragraph tag between them.
> 2) For some completely strange reason, if you make a list item that
> includes a link then the entire list item will be in a smaller font.
> This makes for extremely weird and inconsistent lists when a link to
> another wiki page is included in some, but not all, of the items.
> 3) Header text is almost impossible to figure out right, and there is
> absolutely no standard of what we should do.
>
> Is there a reason we chose the software we did?  Would it be too hard
> to migrate to something else, or at least fix the display bugs?
>
> Thanks,
> Scott Ritchie

[Mitchell Mebane]

Scott Ritchie wrote:
> Our wiki software needs a major update, especially as we start to expect
> users to actually read it.
>
> For instance, look at the FAQ page:
>
> Then, click on edit and see how it should look.  From what I can tell,
> there are a few obvious errors:
>
> 1) The wiki software is completely ignoring line breaks.  I could hit
> return 4 times and the HTML rendered would be on subsequent lines,
> without a break or paragraph tag between them.
> 2) For some completely strange reason, if you make a list item that
> includes a link then the entire list item will be in a smaller font.
> This makes for extremely weird and inconsistent lists when a link to
> another wiki page is included in some, but not all, of the items.

This is due to http://wiki.winehq.com/wiki/winehq/css/screen.css

#pagebar {
    font-size: 1em;
}

Making links overrides this style, and the preview page does not have 
this problem, because the content of the preview page is not enclosed in 
the #pagebar element.

Not sure about the others yet.  Could you elaborate on #3 a bit more?

--Mitchell Mebane
> 3) Header text is almost impossible to figure out right, and there is
> absolutely no standard of what we should do.
>
> Is there a reason we chose the software we did?  Would it be too hard to
> migrate to something else, or at least fix the display bugs?
>
> Thanks,
> Scott Ritchie

[Scott Ritchie]

On Mon, 2007-08-13 at 21:25 -0500, Mitchell Mebane wrote:
> Scott Ritchie wrote:
> > Our wiki software needs a major update, especially as we start to expect
> > users to actually read it.
> >
> > For instance, look at the FAQ page:
> >
> > Then, click on edit and see how it should look.  From what I can tell,
> > there are a few obvious errors:
> >
> > 1) The wiki software is completely ignoring line breaks.  I could hit
> > return 4 times and the HTML rendered would be on subsequent lines,
> > without a break or paragraph tag between them.
> > 2) For some completely strange reason, if you make a list item that
> > includes a link then the entire list item will be in a smaller font.
> > This makes for extremely weird and inconsistent lists when a link to
> > another wiki page is included in some, but not all, of the items.
>
> This is due to http://wiki.winehq.com/wiki/winehq/css/screen.css
>
> #pagebar {
>     font-size: 1em;
> }
>
> Making links overrides this style, and the preview page does not have 
> this problem, because the content of the preview page is not enclosed in 
> the #pagebar element.
>
> Not sure about the others yet.  Could you elaborate on #3 a bit more?
>
> --Mitchell Mebane
> > 3) Header text is almost impossible to figure out right, and there is
> > absolutely no standard of what we should do.
> >
> > Is there a reason we chose the software we did?  Would it be too hard to
> > migrate to something else, or at least fix the display bugs?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Scott Ritchie

Regarding header text: do I use 1 = sign, or two, or three, or four, or
even five?  Pages vary considerably around the entire wiki, though this
might be our fault as authors rather than the software.

Thanks,
Scott Ritchie

[Mitchell Mebane]

Scott Ritchie wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-08-13 at 21:25 -0500, Mitchell Mebane wrote:
> > Scott Ritchie wrote:
> > > Our wiki software needs a major update, especially as we start to expect
> > > users to actually read it.
> > >
> > > For instance, look at the FAQ page:
> > >
> > > Then, click on edit and see how it should look.  From what I can tell,
> > > there are a few obvious errors:
> > >
> > > 1) The wiki software is completely ignoring line breaks.  I could hit
> > > return 4 times and the HTML rendered would be on subsequent lines,
> > > without a break or paragraph tag between them.
> > > 2) For some completely strange reason, if you make a list item that
> > > includes a link then the entire list item will be in a smaller font.
> > > This makes for extremely weird and inconsistent lists when a link to
> > > another wiki page is included in some, but not all, of the items.
> >
> > This is due to http://wiki.winehq.com/wiki/winehq/css/screen.css
> >
> > #pagebar {
> >     font-size: 1em;
> > }
> >
> > Making links overrides this style, and the preview page does not have 
> > this problem, because the content of the preview page is not enclosed in 
> > the #pagebar element.
> >
> > Not sure about the others yet.  Could you elaborate on #3 a bit more?
> >
> > --Mitchell Mebane
> > > 3) Header text is almost impossible to figure out right, and there is
> > > absolutely no standard of what we should do.
> > >
> > > Is there a reason we chose the software we did?  Would it be too hard to
> > > migrate to something else, or at least fix the display bugs?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Scott Ritchie
>
> Regarding header text: do I use 1 = sign, or two, or three, or four, or
> even five?  Pages vary considerably around the entire wiki, though this
> might be our fault as authors rather than the software.
>
> Thanks,
> Scott Ritchie

You should start out with 1 level - i.e., a top-level section.  Multiple 
equals signs should be used for sub-sections.
E.g.,
= Section 1=
== Sub-section 1.1 ==
== Sub-section 1.2 ==
=== Sub-sub-section 1.2.1 ===
= Section 2 =

Unfortunately, it seems they are often used for the same reason many 
people (ab)use the various <hx> tags HTML - to gain a certain font size, 
rather than for semantic meaning.

--Mitchell Mebane