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Why don't we use a Markdown Editor here on the main q2a forum?

+5 votes
5.1k views
in Plugins by
edited by

I am just super wondering, why we still use the old CKEditor 3 for this forum. Most of the questions are programming questions, we don't need to prettify our text. We need basic text features and (what is more important) a light-weight, fast editor.

I strongly suggest to use a Markdown editor. Probably Scott's plugin will be good for (haven't tested it yet, but I believe in Scott's abilities ;) ).

If you like to swap to the lighter Markdown editor and leave ckeditor behind, please vote up this post, so gidgreen and scott can see that this "wish" is significant for all.

Thanks,
Kai

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+1 this request is absolutely right.
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The proposal does seem logical. However, casual and less technical users, can get a 'hands-on' feel of how the full editor works. So perhaps it serves another use in keeping it?
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@Funrunna: I think for this purpose there should actually be a *separate demo* page.
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3 Answers

+1 vote
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Apart from what Funrunna mentions Gideon has already answered that question before stating he wants to keep this site with as few changes as possible from a default and minimal installation. The least change of this default installation, that I can think is better than the current editor, is having the SOURCE button enabled in ckeditor... I noticed the HTML the editor generates when formatting with it is mostly garbage and you can get to the character limit quite fast if you format your post.
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cke3 is garbage compared to others in 2014 ;)
+3 votes
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developers know how to use markeddown, none developers don't. and there are lot's of none developers here.
+1 vote
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edited by

Although it is important that the main site showcase what people are downloading, there are a few caveats:

  1. If question2answer.org wishes to double as a demo site, its tools MUST be uptodate. The most important thing to a good house is its entrance. For all CMSs and content systems, a good editor is paramount. An editor, for a programmer, designer, casual visitor etc, is the only thing standing between him and the delivery of his content. In a phrase, an editor is too important.

    Whatever editor one chooses, 10:1, one's visitors are already familiar with it. So it behooves to do them a favour to stay updated. No one really wants to subject one's users to Chrome 0.6, or Windows 95; well, unless you are a Library.

    As of today:
    This site uses 4.4.7 whereas the 
    The official CKEditor is 4.5.9
    What is in between in the changelog? you tell me!

    http://ckeditor.com/blog/CKEditor-Content-Delivery-Network-(CDN)

    Jun 12, 2014 Posted by sebstefanov on Miscellaneous
    We’d like to remind everyone that CKEditor is now available via Content Delivery Network (CDN). The download page includes a new CDN section that lets you choose a package with the appropriate code. Just select the desired package from three available options (Basic, Standard, Full), copy the code and embed it to your website or application.

    CKEditor CDN is hosted by Amazon CloudFront, the best Content Delivery Network around. It supports SSL and provides over 50 edge locations on 6 continents around the world, giving you the fastest possible CKEditor performance.

  2. Provide toolbar functionality to match one's majority users/content type.
    Q2A has a lot of questions. Questions about Math equations (the largest users of Q2A), PHP, JS, CSS code ... a lot of code code code.

    Yet, I don't see any code insert plugin (unless I am going blind)
    http://ckeditor.com/addon/codesnippet
     
  3. Users tend to stick with what they download. Therefore they'll be forever cursed with any flaws in the package, and they'll forever plague the internet and Q2A with the most repetitive questions about: how do I do this, how do I do that. Give the users CDN so that that door is forever closed. If they have issues they can pick a fight with the official 3rd Party company
     
  4. It is not necessary to force Markdown on the lot, but the current editor can be cleaned off really well to make life easier for both developers and non-developers. Because both classes of people ask and answer the same class of questions - code questions!

    The developer knows how to cheat and insert code blocks by using his browser's dev tools inspector, while the ordinary non-developer will just paste his code block as a blockquote or a paragraph.
    Point in case: http://www.question2answer.org/qa/45833/how-to-insert-code-on-question-or-answer
     

To help in the matter, I am about to release a state-of-the-art implementation of exactly what I am referring to in this post. I hope it benefits someone.

http://www.question2answer.org/qa/51849/most-powerful-editor-meets-q2a-a-revolution-has-come

Cheers

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