It's probably a naive view by someone that hasn't witnessed the range of errors that you guys correct, but it seems to me that something like markdown ought to reduce your workload.

If the conversion filter is any good, it will fail to allow commitment of a post that fails to produce acceptable html from it's markup and prompt the user to correct it before it will perform the conversion.

The way I envisage it working is that once the filter accepts the markup, it sends the html back to the user and discards the markdown. The user then has to preview the html in raw and formatted states (as now) before submitting, giving them the chance to amend the html if desired. They could also hit the back button to return to the markdown version and tweak it further, before again attempting the conversion.

In this way, the only markup stored is the html, the markdown would simply be an intermediate shortcut to arriving at acceptable html. And if that html is produced by a filter, it ought to be free of errors. If the user modifies the html, there is the possibility that they will screw it up, but that's no different to now, accept that they would be starting from an acceptable starting point without missing end tags or (PM) illegal tags.

The same thing could be achieved by using an offline conversion I suppose, which would have the advantage of allowing a proper editor to be used instead of the editbox I'm currently typing in. The problem with that is either everyone has to produce their own filter/editor/submit/verify/re-edit script, with the consequent mish-mash of complience with site html standards. Or, someone produces a standard module for doing it and tries to make it general enough to work with the 1000 varieties of preferred editor.

It's far from a big thing, just a convenience, if it is possible, and it doesn't impact the servers too much.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

In reply to Re^4: Markdown syntax useful to the Monestary? by BrowserUk
in thread Markdown syntax useful to the Monastery? by radiantmatrix

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.