Cancellation of Quick Reply Form

pjv · 2006-03-30 03:53

Hello Parallax;

I would like to suggest you eliminate the "Quick Reply" section·from the·methods of responding to posts.

My reasoning is that·it has the severe·flaw of deleting formatting in any posted code, while it adds very little to the convenience·of posters over using the "full" form.

With the impending arrival of Propeller, surely lots of new users are going to be asking questions and posting their code. If this is done in the "Quick Reply" section, then the all important whitespace block indicators will be lost, and the resulting·mess displayed·will be meaningless. By forcing folks to go to the regular "full" response form, the "#" tag can be used to post code with the format intact.

New Propeller users need to be educated about the "whitespace" issue, and it only makes sense to start them off on the right foot. I·expect that·a lot·frustration will be eliminated if one can't post "just a quick reply".

Furthermore I suggest some·way of making it MUCH clearer on the "full" form what the process is to post code with format intact.

Just a suggestion for convenience.

Cheers,

Peter (pjv)

Superworms · 2006-03-30 15:18

i agree

SteveW · 2006-03-30 15:27

Hmm. I like quick reply, and it works on all browsers. If you're going to kill it, could it be kept on all but the Propeller forum, since that's the only place it's troublesome?

Steve

Tracy Allen · 2006-03-30 16:00

Hi Peter,

I disagree. A reply like the one I'm writing now is quickly done in quick reply, and contains no code (as is often the case). Furthermore, the full reply screen takes time to load, and the the emoticons jumping up and down are IMHO quite distracting.

Even in quick reply, it is easy enough to bracket a

snippet
    indented
        double indented

with code and /code in square brackets.
I receive the list via email and make a quick take there. The posts that use a lot of color and fonts are a mess to decrypt, lost in all the formatting code.

I do agree that it is important to make it easy to enter spin code with the proper formatting. The code /code block retains spaces, but by default it uses a proportional font. In browsers other than IE for PC, there is does not seem to be an easy way to force the code block to use a monospace font. Unless I've missed it somewhere.

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Tracy Allen
www.emesystems.com

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2006-03-30 17:06

Hi Tracy,

I use Opera under Windows, OS/X, and Linux. In Windows, I get monospaced fonts, but not under OS/X. The culprit is the msgCode class in the forum's cascading style sheet. The [noparse][[/noparse]code] section of your post above, in HTML source, begins:

<DIV class=msgCode><DIV name="code">snippet ...

Poking around in the forum's CSS file at forums.parallax.com/forums/styles/dotNetBB/css/style.css, one finds the following:

.msgCode {
  background-color: #EEEEEE;
  color: #000099;
  font-family: Lucida Console, Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helevetica, Sans-Serif;
  font-size: 8pt;
  cursor: default;
  font-weight: normal;
  padding-left: 10px;
  padding-right: 10px;
  padding-bottom: 5px;
  padding-top: 5px;
  border: 1px inset threedshadow;
}

The line that says "font-family" should probably be changed so that "Arial", "Helvetica", and any other proportional fonts are removed, and "Sans-Serif" replaced with "monospaced". Then, at the beginning of the list, inserting the font name, "Parallax", would allow all those who have that font installed to see Spin code in all its graphical glory.

This would be an easy change for Parallax's web folks to make. I'm just not sure whom to contact about this.

-Phil

Bruce Bates · 2006-03-30 17:25

Phil -

THANK YOU!! A THOUSAND times THANK YOU!!

I suspect you've just made all the notification that is necessary.

Regards,

Bruce Bates

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Ken Gracey · 2006-03-30 19:36

Phil,

I'll ask the IT Guy about making the change you identified (don't send him a message because he's working on our new web site). As for Peter's request to vaporize the "Quick Reply" button that's not going to happen. Our tech support team uses it quite often, as well as other customers. Some of the types of questions in our most active forum (BASIC Stamps) can be managed with a fast reply, which is where the Quick Reply is handy. Further, IT Guy doesn't like doing too many customizations on this particular software (dotNetBB) and I can't blame him. . . so difficult for me to say "no" as a "yes man"!

To address Peter's request, one of you could write "Propeller Code Posting Guidelines" in the forum and we'd make it a sticky thread after we agree to the suggestions. In this document you'd describe the proper way to insert code into your Propeller forum questions.

Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.

Cancellation of Quick Reply Form

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