After reading the hundreds of comments on Jeff's blog, and the SO blog, and the first question that was posted here, I think there may be a simple solution to most of the [perceived] usability problems in the edit form. Several people have suggested that Markdown should be optional, matthock in particular.
Consider this hypothetical question that could be asked by a first-time user:
I'm trying to create* a custom tag in ColdFusion, called cf_helloworld.
Here's the code in hello.cfm:
<cfparam name="greeting" default="Hello">
<cfparam name="name" default="friend">
#attributes.greeting#, #attributes.name#. We've been expecting you.
And here's the code in index.cfm I use to call it:
<cfoutput><cf_helloworld name="Patrick"/></cfoutput>
It doesn't throw any errors, but it's not quite working the way I want.
1. It prints "#attributes.greeting#, #attributes.name#..." instead
of "Hello, Patrick..."
2. It prints the whole thing twice.
Thanks!
* Actually, I'm trying to edit an existing one, but first I need to
figure out how these things work.
Here's how Markdown would render that question:
I'm trying to create* a custom tag in ColdFusion, called cf_helloworld.
Here's the code in hello.cfm:
attributes.greeting#, #attributes.name#. We've been expecting you.
And here's the code in index.cfm I use to call it:
It doesn't throw any errors, but it's not quite working the way I want. 1. It prints "#attributes.greeting#, #attributes.name#..." instead of "Hello, Patrick..." 2. It prints the whole thing twice.
Thanks!
- Actually, I'm trying to edit an existing one, but first I need to figure out how these things work.
The proposed line break change wouldn't help much.
I'm trying to create* a custom tag in ColdFusion, called cf_helloworld.
Here's the code in hello.cfm:
attributes.greeting#, #attributes.name#. We've been expecting you.
And here's the code in index.cfm I use to call it:
It doesn't throw any errors, but it's not quite working the way I want.
1. It prints "#attributes.greeting#, #attributes.name#..." instead of "Hello, Patrick..."
2. It prints the whole thing twice.
Thanks!
- Actually, I'm trying to edit an existing one, but first I need to figure out how these things work.
The only hope the system has of getting this question right is just to treat it as plain text.
I'm trying to create* a custom tag in ColdFusion, called cf_helloworld.
Here's the code in hello.cfm:
<cfparam name="greeting" default="Hello>
<cfparam name="name" default="friend">#attributes.greeting#, #attributes.name#. We've been expecting you.
And here's the code in index.cfm I use to call it:
<cfoutput><cf_helloworld name="Patrick"/></cfoutput>It doesn't throw any errors, but it's not quite working the way I want.
1. It prints "#attributes.greeting#, #attributes.name#..." instead of "Hello, Patrick..."
2. It prints the whole thing twice.
Thanks!
* Actually, I'm trying to edit an existing one, but first I need to figure out how these things work.
It might make sense to treat posts as plain text by default, and only enable Markdown at the user's request (a checkbox below the editor).
[ ] Enable advanced formatting with Markdown (Tell me more...)
The setting would be sticky. If you choose Markdown when you create a post, it will be selected by default the next time you create a post. If you edit an existing post (your own or someone else's), the checkbox will default to the state it was in when the post was saved.
What do you think?
\).