Re: WYSIWYM editors

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Geoffrey Sneddon" <geoffers@gmail.com>
To: <public-html@w3.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2007 3:30 PM
Subject: WYSIWYM editors


> 
> One of many things I think needs to be done with HTML is make it  
> easier to be editable with a WYSIWYM editor, without having an over  
> sophisticated UI.
> 
> Nobody has made a usable WYSIWYM editor for the HTML 4.01 standard as  
> it's near impossible, due to the complexity of the spec (such as  
> being able to explain in one line what tags mean).
> 
> We must be able to:
>  - Explain, in a few words in layman's terms, what a tag/attribute  
> means.
>  - Parse current web content, without changing the semantic meaning.
>  - Create something that's understandable without any styling.
> 
> How we do this, however, is questionable (and hard).
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Geoffrey Sneddon
>

I think that first we need to determine what is the use case(s) of 
WYSIWYM editors. Use case definition means:
1) Definition of context. Where WYSIWYM editing happens:
 e.g. is it, say, <richtext> input element in some <form> or is it full
page editing mode? 
2) Definition of the actor - user who is editing text WYSIWYM mode.
 His/her skills required, etc. 

Full page WYSIWYG is not possible in presence of CSS so 
I guess we can forget about it.

To design basic principles behind <richtext> is feasible and
really makes sense (at least for me). Blogs, BBs and various CMS
are what popup immediately.

So what is the scope?

(For the discussion I can provide environment where 
various approaches of WYSIWYG editing can be modelled
so discussion will not be notionally theoretical)

Andrew Fedoniouk.
http://terrainformatica.com

Received on Sunday, 18 March 2007 20:38:05 UTC