How WYSIWYG editors are broken, and why we need to fix them (opens in new tab)

(rachelandrew.co.uk)

2 pointsdrewmclellan14y ago3 comments

3 comments

3 comments · 2 top-level

wccrawford14y ago· 1 in thread

tl;dr - WYSIWYG fails to provide enough control for designers. Instead, we should use this specific jQuery library. It shows the markup instead of what it will look like to the end-user.

... No. WYSIWYG is designed to let you preview your document as you go, instead of having to repeatedly preview it and fix things. It's not really for designers, it's for the common man who just want to put something in bold without a ton of extra garbage in his way. It's designed for the common man who doesn't know, or doesn't want to think about, markup.

There's nothing wrong with WYSIWIG editors. The problem is that you are trying to use them for the wrong thing.

drewmclellanOP14y ago

Disagree with your tl;dr, it mischaracterises the post. Mine would be:

WYSIWYG provides distraction for editors, and fails to separate content from presentation for developers. Instead, we should use an abstracted formatting language that adds semantics, not styling. The problem is we need a good visual editor to work with that formatting language.

r00fus14y ago

Personally I like what I get in stackoverflow... A way to preview in-ine as I write the [wiki] style site-specific syntax.

If markitup can do similar for forms, it would be a great way to usefully promote utilization and expertise using those constraints/syntax.

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