Why use STE?

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wdavatar?user=leiger
leiger
02 Jun 2010 23:46. Edited 0 times. (Edit, Permalink)

This is what I said in response to Steven's question:

Steven Heynderickx wrote: It's a bit long not? STE wikidot editor… Shane's text editor wikidot editor in full!
What's if for BTW? I visited your site but in the about or on the home there is not much info. If it would be a stand alone of a wikidot server that would be great, but an editor… what can I use it for?

  • Allows saving and loading of files, so you can create wikidot pages while offline and upload them later
  • Allows direct printing of source code (eventually I'll make it automatically pull the source from a page if you give the page name)
  • It's going to be more fully-featured than the standard wikidot editor. If I do it how I'd like to, you shouldn't need to ever read the documentation again as it'll all be built in to the buttons. For example:
    1. Click "ListPages" or any other module (tooltips explaining what each is used for)
    2. Choose your parameters (tooltips explaining what each is used for)
    3. Select from a list of variables to use in the module body (tooltips explaining what each is used for)

If you've ever used an IDE for a programming language that gives you a list of methods or variable names as you type… this is going to be the same thing for Wikidot, although it won't be done automatically as you type (through menus and buttons instead)

And that's why it's called "STE" … you're not meant to expand it and call it "shane's text editor wikidot editor" XD

Just call it "STE" or "STE wikidot editor"…


So, can anyone here think of any other reasons to use STE?

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wdavatar?user=leiger
leiger

04 Jun 2010 01:38. Edited 0 times. (Edit, Permalink)
I just found a great reason to use it! :D Whenever a page has a lot of complicated code (e.g. my custom forum), I try to expand the editing window to as big as I can within the web page to let myself see as much code as possible at any one time.

STE doesn't have the restriction of being in a web page… it can expand to the full height and width of my monitor (minus space taken up by the toolbar and menu) and is perfect for seeing as much code as possible! :)

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wdavatar?user=franknarf
Franknarf

11 Jun 2010 21:56. Edited 0 times. (Edit, Permalink)
Hi leiger/Shane — just noticed this nice project. Once Wikidot improves its backup services (like adding the option to upload a site or clone from backup), I could see myself using this a lot. Is the goal to get an offline compiler or partial WYSIWYG viewer? That would be awesome.

As far as I can tell, it's currently a text editor with text-insertion buttons and colors, or are there other features? Of course, you could let the user add pre-customized blocks to the "Modules" menu; and ditto for the toolbar.

Anyway: watching the site for updates.

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wdavatar?user=leiger
leiger

11 Jun 2010 23:09. Edited 0 times. (Edit, Permalink)

Franknarf wrote:
Hi leiger/Shane — just noticed this nice project. Once Wikidot improves its backup services (like adding the option to upload a site or clone from backup), I could see myself using this a lot.


Wikidot just updated the XML-RPC API today, which is great news. Why? Because they added the page.save method, meaning you can create Wikidot pages now.

That means that you can point STE to a backup folder, and tell it the site name, and it can automatically create the pages for you! Well… not yet. I'd have to figure out how to make it do that first ;-) It's possible though, and that's the main thing!

Franknarf wrote:
Is the goal to get an offline compiler or partial WYSIWYG viewer? That would be awesome.
As far as I can tell, it's currently a text editor with text-insertion buttons and colors, or are there other features?


The aim is to make an editor that can be used offline, or just as an alternative to the browser.

It won't be an offline compiler. Any 'preview' mode I create will most likely convert the syntax into Rich Text and show what that looks like - it won't generate HTML. At least, that seems the easiest way to do it.

I can't think of a reason for needing to generate HTML anyway - especially considering all modules would be useless in that situation. Could I ask you, why would an offline compiler be useful? Maybe I haven't thought about that enough…

The main feature so far that you can't get anywhere else is the ability to save your partially-created page on your computer, and resume editing later. Apart from that there's nothing else you won't already find online — yet.

Franknarf wrote:
Of course, you could let the user add pre-customized blocks to the "Modules" menu; and ditto for the toolbar.


That's a great idea! Could you create a new thread in the suggestions forum for this?

Franknarf wrote:
Anyway: watching the site for updates.


Thanks! :)

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wdavatar?user=franknarf
Franknarf

11 Jun 2010 23:57. Edited 0 times. (Edit, Permalink)

leiger wrote:
That means that you can point STE to a backup folder, and tell it the site name, and it can automatically create the pages for you! Well… not yet.


Sounds good.

leiger wrote:
Could I ask you, why would an offline compiler be useful?


Well it would be cool (to quote myself "awesome"), but not actually useful to me. I was just asking to clarify the motivation/direction of the project (fitting in with the subject of the thread).

If it compiled to HTML files in the same folder, and somehow the modules worked when compiling, and the links worked between the HTML files, then that would make Wikidot portable, like a substitute for Tiddlywiki (which I no longer use). But again, that would be more cool than useful…and really difficult, I imagine.

leiger wrote:
Could you create a new thread in the suggestions forum for this?


Ok. I expanded on it a little.

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wdavatar?user=leiger
leiger

12 Jun 2010 00:12. Edited 0 times. (Edit, Permalink)
The modules work on Wikidot's backend, and HTML is static… so it'd be impossible to replicate what the modules do unless the new host was using Wikidot.org (but that's horribly out-of-date).

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