Re: [Krang-devel] Two Ideas

[Jesse E. <je...@er...>]

> Do I understand you right? It would be kind of a container element
> independent of and pluggable into any story, a sort of *minipage* in
> LaTex lingo?  And you would plug it into a story using a
> story_part_selector or minipage_selector modelled on the
> element_selector? Cool!

I'm not familiar with LaTex but, yes, that sounds like what I'm
describing.

I can't tell you how many times I with I had the ability to use Krang as
a *database* of sorts.  I'd like to be able to define "top level
containers" in set.conf, and those would be manageable via the element
editor and their own search screen.

Next, I'd create a "ContainerLink" element class, permitting these
elements to be referenced by a story.  One bug problem is how to address
these things.  They can't really have their own URL, because they're
never published.  It really is more like a database in that regard.

I'm really interested in some ideas from the group on this item.  I
think it really could be a break-away feature for Krang.  I'd also like
to make sure I'm not running down a road which had been traveled
(poorly) in the past.


> I've been thinking about that whole issue of simple markup
> commands/strings for a while now and I guess your proposition to use
> wiki-syntax with plain textareas is motivated by the fact that Xinha &
> Co. are too heavy for what we need in Krang and related applications,
> not to mention the time they need to load.  Furthermore, these heavy
> weights are modelled on desktop word processors and lack some crucial
> things for html editing, like inserting <acronym>, <abbr> and other
> semantic tags.

My motivation wasn't really an argument against Xinha.  My main concern
is providing a *simple* way to link to another Krang story and inform
the publishing system that the referenced story should also be
published.

The prevalence of WYSIWYG editors are certainly making it easier to
manage content, but as their use grows the value of the data in the
Krang system diminishes.  Ultimately, if unchecked, we'll just have
blobs of HTML in the database (a la Joomla, et al) which will defy
separation of content from presentation and all that it provides.

TTYL,

-Jesse-


--
=20
Jesse Erlbaum
The Erlbaum Group
je...@er...
Phone: 212-684-6161
Fax: 212-684-6226
=20