* * * * *
                                        
                         Those ol' collaborative blues
                                        
The tone for today was cast in electronic stone when I wrote the following in
a thread:

> For me, it can't be purely web based, as I loathe editing text in a browser
> (really, the editing capabilities of a <TEXTAREA> sucks). It has to feel
> quick (it doesn't have to be quick) and it should be easy to create new
> nodes, notes, blobs or whatever. I would like the ability to customize the
> key bindings (Home goes to begining of a line, Ctrl-Home to the start of
> the document, etc).
> 
> Oh, and multiplatform (at a minimum, Linux and Mac OS (Operating System)).
> Given that, I would want hooks for loading and saving to throw the document
> into and out of some form of version control software (because I want the
> ability to edit the master copy reguardless of which computer I'm on, and
> yes, I do use multiple computers at multiple locations on a regular basis).
> 
> So far, nothing has beat logging into my home computer and using a text
> editor.
> 

“Me”, in a thread on scheherazade in blue jeans—Clarification on mindmapping
stuff [1]

While the thread in question was about mind mapping software [2] I see
parallels with the current situation at work [3].

I think I have a handle on what I hate most about WikiWikiWebs [4]: editing
the pages. Each wiki has its own concept of markup (more or less) and it's
markup that is supposedly easier to type than HTML (HyperText Markup
Language). And certain typographical conventions are rather easier to use
than HTML, like *asterisks* for **strong emphasis** or _underlines_ for plain
emphasis.

Heck, mod_blog [5] has a few things like that, for instance “---” for
“&mdash;” (which makes a nice “—”) or even “``” (two backtics, which on most
keyboards is in the upper left corner) gets translated to &ldquo; which gives
the nice opening double quotes.

No, where it starts failing for me is in the structural markup. Weird rules
like “lines that start with an asterisk denote an unordered list, to get
nesting, nest the lines”

> * one
> * two
>   * a
>   * b
> * three
> 
> * one
> * two
> * a
> * b
> * three
> 

Or was that “lines that start with an asterisk denote an unordered list, get
nest nesting, add asterisks”

> * one
> * two
> ** a
> ** b
> * three
> 
> * one
> * two 
> * * a
> * * b
>   
> * three
> 

And was it a dash that started headers, or a percent sign [6]? And what if
you can't use the Tab key [7] because the browser uses it to switch focus to
other form elements? So you may have problems with wiki-formatting and
editing under the browser.

Which leads us to actually editing text under a web browser, which I contend,
sucks [8]. Part of this is the browser, which has other ideas about the Tab
key, and part of this is the operating system, which has its own ideas about
what keys do what (like the Mac OS's concept of the Home key, and my concept
of the Home key, are at odds).

> From: "P" <XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>
> To: "Sean Conner" <spc@XXXXXXXXXXX> (email @ work)
> Subject: Re: collaboration issues
> Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 11:57:36 -0400 (EDT)
> 
> Sean,
> 
> Here a line from shell script I'm using to keep the site lists updated
> automatically. Basically just a post using wget (make sure your using a up
> to date version of wget).
> 
> wget -O /dev/null \
> 	--http-user=AutoUpdate \
> 	--http-passwd=XXXXXXXXXXXXX \
> 	--post-file=$tmp/sitelist \
> 	http://XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/twiki/bin/save/$web/$topic> 
> You may also find the following features useful.
> 
> * http://twiki.org/cgi- bin/view/Plugins/PluginPackage [9]
> * http://twiki.org/cgi- bin/view/Plugins/AddOnPackage [10] (take look the
>   MailToTwikiAddOn)
> * http://twiki.org/cgi- bin/view/Plugins/ContribPackage [11]
> 
> -P
> 

I looked, but wasn't overly impressed (unlike my reaction to TiddlyWiki [12])
and I'm not a fan of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors (P
installed one on the Twiki) but as I replied to P, I'm not all criticisms
with no suggestions—I did place all my work notes (and work related files)
under a webserver on my workstation, to make it easier to get to them (even
if they're a bit disorganized under names that may only have meaning to me)
and write a webpage to display the current IP (Internet Protocol) address
allocations [13] (which uses XMLHttpRequest() [14] to fetch the text file and
generates a table view—my ultimate intent is to allow one to edit the data
using the webpage and have it update the file back on my workstation).

Obligatory Sidebar Links

Firefox extentions I'm looking at:

* It's All Text! [15]
* Firemacs [16] (sigh—but it's better than what isn't there now)
* BBComposer [17]
* Save Text Area [18]


I also started looking at various Firefox extentions [19] to hopefully make
editing under Firefox a bit more tolerable. I ended up wasting a few hours
removing and reinstalling Firefox because some editing extension [20]
([DELETED-sorry, I don't remember which one-DELETED] I found the link in a
text file of all things) screwed up Firefox (by adding a large amount of
blank space to the bottom of the Firefox window, which I couldn't get rid
of).

And if you think I'm making a mountain out of an anthill, I'm not. This issue
is currently demoralizing everyone in the company (at the very least, I'm
getting demoralized) and we at The Company need to find a solution to allows
us to collaborate, now that we've gone all Virtual Office.

[1] http://shadesong.livejournal.com/3168249.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Mapping
[3] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2007/03/12.3
[4] http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples
[5] https://boston.conman.org/about/
[6] http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TextFormattingRules
[7] http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TipForTypingTab
[8] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2007/03/12.3
[9] http://twiki.org/cgi-
[10] http://twiki.org/cgi-
[11] http://twiki.org/cgi-
[12] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2007/03/03.1
[13] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2007/03/12.3
[14] http://www.w3.org/TR/XMLHttpRequest/
[15] https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/4125/
[16] https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/4141/
[17] https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3795/
[18] https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1046/
[19] https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/extensions/
[20] http://mozedit.mozdev.org/installation.html

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

.