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diff --git a/doc/todo/pagedown_plugin/discussion.mdwn b/doc/todo/pagedown_plugin/discussion.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 000000000..42015c4ff --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/todo/pagedown_plugin/discussion.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,146 @@ +(This conversation was moved from [[plugins/wmd/discussion]]. --[[anarcat]]) + +I've tried to retrieve the wmd-editor source tarball lately, but the site seems offline. + +From what I've read on the Internet, wmd-editor is not (yet?) free software by itself, and its author has gone MIA. +But it looks like somebody recently took the step to rewrite a wmd-clone under a saner license, see [[pagedown|http://code.google.com/p/pagedown/source/browse/]]. + +Given all the above, what about upgrading this plugin to use pagedown instead of wmd? It seem a clear win to me... + +> AFAICS, pagedown is a modified version of WMD. Let's +> look at its license file: --[[Joey]] +> +> A javascript port of Markdown, as used on Stack Overflow +> and the rest of Stack Exchange network. +> +> Largely based on showdown.js by John Fraser (Attacklab). +> +> Original Markdown Copyright (c) 2004-2005 John Gruber +> <http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/> +> +> +> Original Showdown code copyright (c) 2007 John Fraser +> +> Modifications and bugfixes (c) 2009 Dana Robinson +> Modifications and bugfixes (c) 2009-2011 Stack Exchange Inc. +> +> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a +> copy [...] +> +> Ok, so it says it's based on showdown. John Fraser wrote showdown and also +> WMD, which IIRC was built on top of showdown. (Showdown converts the +> markdown to html, and WMD adds the editor UI.) +> +> I can nowhere find a actual statement of the copyright of showdown or +> WMD. <http://code.google.com/p/wmd/> has a "MIT License" notice on it, +> but this is clearly just the license chosen when signing up at google +> code for the repo that would be used for a rewrite of the code, and the only thing +> said about the previous 1.0 release of WMD is "use it freely", which is not +> specific enough to be a grant of license, and is moreover not a free +> software license, as it does not cover distribution or modification. +> +> Which was all covered in the thread here, +> when StackOverflow decided to start working on pagedown. +> <http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/12/reverse-engineering-the-wmd-editor/> +> This thread does not give any indication that they ever managed to get +> a license grant for WMD/showdown. It frankly, does not inspire confidence +> that the people working on this care about the license. +> +> It would probably be pretty easy to adapt the ikiwiki wmd plugin +> to use pagedown. But without a clear and credible license, why? +> +> (Note that I have a wmd-new branch in my ikiwiki git repo that +> uses <https://github.com/derobins/wmd>, which was an earlier +> version of pagedown (probably, not entirely clear).) +> +> An alternate alternative is markitup: <http://markitup.jaysalvat.com/> +> It has a clear history and a credible license (MIT or GPL dual license). +> It's also easily extensible to other formats so could handle rst etc. +> It does not, however, have a markdown to html converter -- for +> previewing it has to talk to the server with AJAX. +> --[[Joey]] + + +>> Showdown has a pretty explicit [license.txt file](https://github.com/coreyti/showdown/blob/master/license.txt) +>> and it basically looks like a BSD license. That license.txt file was imported into +>> github directly from the upstream showdown source, so it seems credible. That zip file +>> is still available [on archive.org](http://wayback.archive.org/web/20100612163302/http://attacklab.net/showdown/showdown-v0.9.zip), +>> and does mention a BSD copyright. +>> +>> So Showdown itself is clean: it's free. Nowhere does it say it derives from WMD, or +>> if it does, it doesn't matter *because* it was made by the same author **and then** +>> released under that free license. But even then, it does *not* mention being a +>> derivative of WMD. +>> +>> I agree the license behind WMD is murky. One the one hand, the [google code page](https://code.google.com/p/wmd/) +>> mentions the code will be relicensed under MIT but "for now" we can "use it freely": +>> +>> > *I'm refactoring the code, and will be releasing WMD under the MIT license soon. For +>> now you can download the most recent release (wmd-1.0.1.zip) and use it freely.* +>> +>> That zip file is again offline, but it's also [on archive.org](http://web.archive.org/web/20101226145228/http://wmd-editor.com/downloads/wmd-1.0.1.zip). +>> Things get a little more murky there: the file doesn't actually mention any copyright +>> statement, and the code is actually obfuscated, something that is mentionned on the aforementionned +>> Stack Exchange thread. The [terms and conditions of WMD](http://web.archive.org/web/20100323043113/http://wmd-editor.com/terms) +>> are pretty hostile however: +>> +>>> *All rights reserved. You may not duplicate, copy, or reuse any portion of the HTML/CSS, JavaScript, or visual design elements or concepts without express written permission from AttackLab.* +>> +>> But one could argue they apply only to WMD, and *not* showdown, which has been +>> explicitely published under a different license. And maybe that was the whole +>> point here: the stack exchange people were trying to negociate having the +>> clear and free version of WMD for their own use, maybe showdown is actually +>> what came out of this and what allows Stack exchange to do their thing... +>> +>> And besides: the point here is that we *can't actually use WMD safely*, but +>> we **can use pagedown safely!**. +>> +>> I tried the plugin: it works, and it works well. It's also fairly trivial to +>> install the upstream showdown library, which is not shipped with the plugin +>> (which alleviates all possible copyright problems). You can take test the +>> plugin at <http://testwiki.anarc.at/> +>> +>> There are only three issues I could find during testing: +>> +>> 1. two previews are showed (the showdown one and the regular ikiwiki one), +>> which can be confusing, but is still necessary because the showdown one +>> doesn't parse ikiwiki directives. +>> 2. the wiki needs to be rebuilt when the plugin is first activated for the +>> stylesheets to regenerate. new wikis are not affected, and this can be +>> deployed massively on farms without user intervention. +>> 3. on large pages, the edit screen isn't in the first screen, so it's not +>> obvious we're editing the page, which is also a little confusing - we +>> would need an anchor in there... Update: a simple patch fixes that... +>> but in a rather crude way: +>> +>> [[!format diff """ +--- a/IkiWiki/Render.pm ++++ b/IkiWiki/Render.pm +@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ sub genpage ($$) { + my $actions=0; + if (length $config{cgiurl}) { + if (IkiWiki->can("cgi_editpage")) { +- $template->param(editurl => cgiurl(do => "edit", page => $page)); ++ $template->param(editurl => cgiurl(do => "edit", page => $page) . '#editcontent'); + $actions++; + } + } +"""]] +>> ideally, we would show the edit box next to the page preview... And there's a way to do that too! But it requires some more CSS hackery, like [this](http://css-tricks.com/scrollfollow-sidebar/), for example: +>> +>> #wmd-preview { +>> position: relative; +>> margin: 15px auto; +>> float: left; +>> width: 50%; +>> } +>> form { +>> position: fixed; +>> margin-left: 50%; +>> } +>> +>> But this is getting a little crazy and I need to sleep now. +>> +>> [[!template id=gitbranch branch=anarcat/pagedown author="[[anarcat]]"]] +>> +>> Anyways, let's work on merging that pretty branch already shall we? :) --[[anarcat]] |