Is there a way to improve new user code-formatting in questions and answers?

Question

I spend a bit of time some days editing and improving the quality of questions and answers, and confortably the most common task is to format a block of code where the questioner/answerer has failed to do so.

Moreover, it's clear that many new users just don't understand how to do so. Check out the comments on the following question

https://stackoverflow.com/q/6124080/144491

The problem of getting people to format code correctly in their posts seems to be endemic. For me there are a number of issues:

1. The posted code is incomprehensible.
2. In the case of HTML tags the posted code can actually be hidden.
3. Tabs are pasted as tabs, and spaces as spaces making formatting even more difficult.

I have a few thoughts regarding this:

1. A warning message is displayed when you make a post that looks like it contains unformatted code (akin to the warning when the system deems you should start voting for answers).
2. Convert all tabs to (4?) spaces when posting (client-side clipboard access issues make it difficult to do so on pasting).
3. Add a new tab the the 'review' page to highlight potentially unformatted code.
4. Add something to the FAQ with regard to code formatting.

Does anyone have any more, or thoughts of their own regarding this?

Answer 1

While not all users are fixable, it's correct that the new and improved Markdown help doesn't make it clear that the buttons can be used to simplify much of the formatting work.

We're changing this – actually, we're bringing back an old friend to help us with this.

It's already deployed here on Meta; try it out: Open the [?] Markdown help and click on the tabs (you might have to refresh the page before).

Answer 2

Per

Simple method for reliably detecting code in text?

We just deployed a method that we think is quite reliable for blocking 98% of posts submitted with code that has improper code formatting (or no code formatting at all).

For example, when I go into Chrome incognito and attempt to ask this question body on Stack Overflow right now:

I needed to add up all the rows for a result. Using the select_sum as follows

Here is the model

function Dues_Paid_Tot($date)
    {
        $query = $this->db->select_sum('Dues_Paid', 'Dues_Paid_Tot');
        $query = $this->db->get('Membership');
        return $query->result();
    }

Here is the controller

function Fiscal2()
    {
    $date = $this->input->post('Select_Date');
        if($query = $this->report_model->fiscal_list($date))
        {
            $data['records'] = $query;
        }
    $data['date'] = $this->input->post('Select_Date');
    $data['Dues_Paid_Tot'] = $this->report_model->Dues_Paid_Tot($date);
    $data['main_content'] = 'report_fiscal_view';
    $this->load->view('includes/template', $data);
}

I get back:

Oops! Your question couldn't be submitted because:

Your post appears to contain code that is not properly formatted as code. Please indent all code by 4 spaces using the code toolbar button or the CTRL+K keyboard shortcut. For more editing help, click the [?] toolbar icon.

This check is limited to users with <= 50 reputation and is performed on questions / answers / edits and suggested edits.

If you see or hear of any cases where this is triggered inappropriately -- or not triggered, and it should have been -- let us know.

Answer 3

IMO the markup needs to be extended to allow formatting a block of code without having to prefix every line with 4 spaces. I've just started using StackOverflow -- and I'm already finding it tedious to add that to every code line.

To post working code into my question, in my emacs buffer I have to M-x replace-regexp "^J" with "^J " before pasting the text the edit box for it to format correctly. I tried the <pre></pre> block tags, but that did not work for me.

If there were <code></code> block tags that I could wrap code with it would be much simpler to cut and paste code real code that I am working on in a editor.

Also, the preview of the posting does not syntax highlight the code, if it did I would know immediately if it were parsing my markdown correctly.

edit: If this suggestion were implemented, then I wouldn't have had the experience described above. edit 2 here: I somehow pasted the wrong link and meant to link to this suggestion

I still think that the preview box should syntax highlight.

Also, wouldn't it be possible to detect code snippets that weren't formatted and automatically 'suggest' that they be formatted so? I'm sure there is an ugly regexp out there that detects code written in most languages....

edit 2 Negative votes? Hey, I'm just a new user to the site sharing my very fresh on topic experience about code formatting. Other users have run into the same issue. sheesh

I realize that my suggestion about the <code> block tag was naive -- but then again maybe not. Can someone point me to a help entry discussing the <code> tag? I really cannot find one.

As a new user, I wanted to paste a bit of code into my question and I only had read the quick help box accessible by the [?] button. I was under the impression that the only option I had was to manually insert 4 spaces before every line to get code to format correctly. If I were a novice programmer copy-pasting more than 15 lines of code I would have given up and pasted it without any formatting.

Its been pointed out before, and I'll add my 2 cents:

Both markdown Help sections (the quick help and the advanced help>> page) NEED to have better documentation of:

• highlighting existing text and pressing the {} button or Ctrl-K
• the <code></code> tags. The quick help makes no mention of it and the wording on the advanced help>> mentions it in passing when discussing the backticks markdown syntax.