|From: Brion Vibber <brion(a)pobox.com>
|Date: 05 Nov 2002 10:15:13 -0800
|
|On Tue, 2002-11-05 at 09:33, Toby Bartels wrote:
|> Actually, our headers *do* already impose a heirarchical structure.
|> Turn on numbered headers in your user preferences to see it.
|> This is a very desirable option IMO. No arguing is permitted
|> unless it comes from people with that preference set ^_^.
|
|Our headers impose no such thing. A misconceived "number headers"
|feature, which users were so annoyed with that it was banished to
|off-by-default and forgotten about by developers long long ago, attempts
|futilely to impose such a thing.
|
|Its continued existence is a dark blot upon the soul of the wiki.
|
|-- brion vibber (brion @
pobox.com)
|
The auto-number preference is still there, but doesn't work, it
seems. As an old tech writer I can easily imagine situations where it
might be useful, or at least I can imagine readers who would prefer
it. But I don't think it's all that important.
However, I believe that ordered use of =, ==, ===, ==== and so on
does serve important, encyclopedic purposes:
--- Encouraging writers who use headers to use them logically.
--- Regularizing optional standard features like ==External Links==
-- Making articles look alike.
-- Allowing incoming 'bots and spiders to infer the structure of an
article and make use of that information.
-- Laying the groundwork for future hypertext applications that we
know nothing of except that properly ordered text will be more
useful than random disorder.
-- Keeping out the *ML markup languages
20 years at this generic markup game and still fighting,
Tom Parmenter
Ortolan88