Last modified: 2013-07-31 18:57:38 UTC
Some experienced editors are complaining that writing in VE is slower for them now, because they have to use the toolbar. They are requesting to be able to use wikicode from within the VE. Instead of fully introducing wikicode into the edit mode as some people have requested, I have a different idea. What if we use [[ and {{ as hotkeys to open the insert link and insert template dialogs ? When detecting this combination, the editor could automatically remove this characters from the editsurface and present the dialog to the user. Then the user can keep typing, greatly speeding up the time to author a sentence. These are by far the most used insertions I presume. File and external links are much less common, and I don't see how you could easily have a hotkey like supo I think that would solve much of the concerns that have been mentioned.
It's not required for new users to use the toolbar. In VE, there is a concept of hotkeys. For creating a link use command+k (mac) or control+k (pc)
I think this is a wider issue of how the VE treats people trying to put markup in.
Typing in the VE should .... just type. "Markup" that gets input should just be treated as text, just like when we type "<gallery>" into a Bugzilla bug title and expect it to say "<gallery>" on the other side. Of course a gadget that listens for "[[" and triggers the dialog might be spiffy for power users who just like brackets :), but I wouldn't recommend building it in.
I think in general this is a bad idea to do inside VisualEditor, as Brion's comments expand quite nicely. Consequently, I'm marking this as a WONTFIX. However, yes, of course communities should feel free to write a gadget to do such a thing if you think helpful - but working with us to make VisualEditor better (rather than adding hacks) sounds like a better use of people's time.
