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#121 2008-08-17 21:35:50
Re: [wiki] A New Textbook
It was working moments ago, but now that link shows as a blank page.
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#122 2008-08-17 21:54:32
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#123 2008-08-17 22:35:32
Re: [wiki] A New Textbook
Seems to work again now. Thanks!
This is how I butchered the recent_articles page:- attribute name alone on a single line. Since the “Values” are shown as a separate line anyway, there’s no reason to list them as
="value"
behind the attribute name (makes it easier on the eyes). How attributes are used (attrib=“value”) should explained on the tag syntax page and can also be seen in the examples. - various types of attribute values are shown as links to an info page. This makes it easier to give more elaborate explanations on things like sorting, what an integer and boolean is. Attributes that only take a limited number of values (like status and time), those values are listed in my example, although if they require more explanation, they could be listed on the “attrib value type” info page as well.
- for ‘sort’, no longer list all columns, just a few popular ones, linking to a table reference for all other possible column names and their meaning (a DB table reference is useful to have anyway and it’s easier to keep it up-to-date in one place).
- I’ve put description last, because I suspect in most cases the description is longer than values. If description takes up multiple lines, the ‘value/default/description’ words stay grouped together and as a bonus value => default => description is ordered short to long (looks nice) :)
- value/default/description in italic to make them visually more separate from what follows after the colon
- examples using H5 instead of H4
- H3 looks larger/bolder than H2
- A header like “Article Tags (used mostly for main content)” can be shortened to “Article(s)”. The word “Tags” is used in every header, but since the entire page is about tags, that’s obvious enough. No need to repeat it in each header. Most of the “used mostly…” and “often used…” parts are not needed and I think they are out of place in a reference.
<txp:else />
isn’t a tag :)- “Tags used in links forms” = “available in link_list context” (starting with 4.0.7, most list tags gain container functionality)
- I like the left/right distinction between the main tags and the tags used within the context of those main tags.
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#124 2008-08-18 12:14:35
Re: [wiki] A New Textbook
Mmm… even more work than I thought…
- With all those new links to the more-info page will they all fit on one page? How much elaboration is needed? Who will write those?
- With no longer listing all sort values, people are forced to visit an extra page. But it’s good that only one page will need updating.
- I removed italic from those headings, wanting to keep it for emphasis, but it looks better so I’ll keep it on those headings.
- h5 on examples does not allow for subsections within examples, eg ‘Styles could go this way’ is part of example 3 not a new section on its own. See also txp:article and article_custom for other examples of where a further section is needed. Hence, examples should be h4
- The h2 is now as bold as the other headings. It needs to be the same size as h1 for contents pages to look right, so h1 is now small-caps and wider spacing.
- Tags by Function:
- For the non-coder like me, txp:else is a tag for all intents and purposes. Anyway, what is it if it isn’t a tag?
- Removed some “Tags” from headings. Kept some for clarity because this page will only really be of interest for beginners I think.
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#125 2008-08-18 14:15:40
Re: [wiki] A New Textbook
- I can write the “tag/attribute-type” page and the “ref/table” table reference page (for each table: column names + valid values + description).
- I can’t see the size difference between H4 and H5 (not without first checking source code to see how it is set). See recent_articles for an alternative way of styling it that doesn’t require both H4 and H5
- Same problem still with H2/H3… size difference is very very minimal, even if I increase font-size in the browser.
- <txp:else /> is a language construct. This is why you get an ‘unknown tag error’ when using it outside conditional tags. I’d remove it from the ‘by function’ page, yet keep it on the alphabetic page.
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#126 2008-08-18 15:42:47
Re: [wiki] A New Textbook
I’m learning a lot from this thead, Ruud! Like how my lifestyle affects my web design. Living near the poverty line all my life, I have learned to be very thrifty but hopefully not stingy;-) And living in a small flat and previously in small houses, I’ve always had to make the most of whatever space I have. So I’m finding I have a lot of resistance to actually using larger fonts and more whitespace! But I’ve made more changes to the headings. Does it look better now?
I’ve removed txp:else from tags by function.
And thanks for offering to do the more-info pages. It’s very easy to create tables in dokuwiki and I’ve created a page here to help you get started.
Semantically I think Examples should be h4 rather than h5 too. I’ve put one in the recent articles article so you can see the difference now the sizes have changed. Do you still prefer h5? By the way, I think your new examples layout with heading followed by paragraph followed by code looks better and is easy to follow. I think we’re getting near now…
Last edited by zero (2008-08-19 14:43:47)
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#127 2008-08-18 17:26:53
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#128 2008-08-18 17:30:59
Re: [wiki] A New Textbook
I tend to keep everything lowercase unless I’m absolutely sure it must be uppercase. The attribute names should always be lowercase, I think, but some attribute values can be uppercase or mixed case.
Yes, H4 works fine for the examples now. I’ve made Syntax (in classification) H4 as well, thus reducing the number of header types used from 5 to 3 (h1, h2, h4).
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#129 2008-08-18 17:44:11
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#130 2008-08-18 18:39:39
Re: [wiki] A New Textbook
zero wrote:
OK, so which attribute values absolutely must be upper- or mixed-case?
Didn’t think there were any. *shrug* At least I’ve never found one that didn’t work in lower case. Even sorting by article id (which, istr, is ID
in the database) or date posted (which is Posted
in the database) seems to work for me. But perhaps it’s my outdated PHP/MySQL versions that allow this. YMMV.
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#131 2008-08-18 18:59:29
Re: [wiki] A New Textbook
The ones that Stef mentions should be written like that: ID and Posted (identical to the column names of the textpattern table).
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#132 2008-08-18 19:13:57
Re: [wiki] A New Textbook
Ah, so if I see any of these values, I copy the case. Otherwise, it does’nt matter? Cheers! AuthorID LastMod LastModID Title Title_html Body Body_html Excerpt Excerpt_html Image Category1 Category2 Annotate AnnotateInvite comments_count Status textile_body textile_excerpt Section varchar override_form Keywords url_title custom_1 custom_2 custom_3 custom_4 custom_5 custom_6 custom_7 custom_8 custom_9 custom_10 uid feed_time
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