Quite often posts show up without the code tags, and I think this is probably due to the author not knowing how to use them or that they are available.

The following (very basic) code would check a post for perlisms (charcters common in perl but not in English). If it is above a certain level a warning is printed. Would it be worth including this in the preview stage, and printing a small warning and usage description such as:

Detected code without <code> tags. Please consider adding code tags if there is code in your post - it will look much nicer. See this node for more on posting.

This code does the trick but probably needs tweaking. 

use strict;

# The variable $post contains the text to check.
# $, -> and => are searched for.

my $perlisms = 0;
my $perlisms_limit = 3;

for ( split /\n/, $post ) {
        $perlisms += s/\$|->|\=>//g;
        
        if ( m/<code>/ ) {
                $perlisms = 0;
                last;
        }
}

print "Warning text goes here."
if $perlisms >= $perlisms_limit;

[download]

I am not suggesting that the user should be forced to add code tags, just that they should be reminded.

--tidiness is the memory loss of environmental mnemonics

In reply to Suggest adding code tags if perlish text found in post. by EvdB

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! —
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    ] &#93;
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