Re: [docbook-apps] oXygen 9 beta with WYSIWYG-like editing supportfor DocBook

[Elliotte Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>]

Dave Pawson wrote:

> If you want tags on semantic editing, fine. Use oXygen in that mode.
> Some users want an alternative non-tagged view, for their own reasons.
> Please don't knock them for that, they've as much right to use
> the editor in their way as you have.
> 

You misunderstand me. I am *NOT* arguing against an untagged view that 
shows the document on the screen as it will appear when printed. I think 
that is a very good idea.

I am arguing that the *user interface for input* should be based on 
applying semantics rather than applying styles. That is, I do not want 
the buttons to say "Make this bold" or "make this italic". Instead I 
want them to indicate "Emphasize this" or "Foreign word".

If the marked up text then appears on the screen as bold or italic or 
whatever, that's fine. No one has to look at the tags.

I also suspect it would help to have a convenient way of editing the 
styles so one can tell the app things like, "please make citations 
quoted, not italicized".

However we're never going to get there if we just try to copy Word. We 
don't need to make the interface good for Word users. Those people are 
already happily using Word. I want an interface that is good for DocBook 
users.


P.S. FWIW, I've actually gone so far as to hack WordPress to fix its 
buttons along the lines I describe. I might do it for Oxygen too except 
it's not open source. :-(


-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo@metalab.unc.edu
Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/javaio2/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596527500/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA/