[Moin-user] Useability enhancement

[Thomas Waldmann]

> I hope this is the right place to make this suggestion.

Sure.

> Currently, if you enable the nonexist_qm configuration flag, links to non-existent topics are rendered with a question mark in front of the link, and the hyperlink consists only of the question mark.

Right.

> I have an aesthetic concern and a useability concern:
> 1. Aesthetic: The question mark is, in my experience, normally rendered after the topic. This looks better.

It is rendered before the topic because otherwise it is easily confused 
with a normal question mark at end of the sentence.

Personally, I have switched off nonexist_qm. I don't like it.

> In fact, I'd go as far as to suggest it be rendered as superscript too. It just looks cleaner (it doesn't clutter the text that way).

Mayb you just want to switch it off, too? ;)

> 2. Useability. The question mark is a tiny piece of text to aim a mouse at. It frustrated me and no doubt frustrates others.

If you switch it off, it will render the topic as a link.

> I think it would be better to keep the question mark but make the topic itself the link (as for existing topics).

And how do you distinguish them in that case?

> I've made the change on my local copy of MoinMoin, it's a one liner (to incorporate both):
> 
> In Page.py, in the link_to method on the Page class, on line 322 (in my version), change the following two lines:
> 
> 	return wikiutil.link_tag(request, url,
> 	    '?', formatter=fmt, **kw) + text + attach_link
> 
> to
> 	
> 	return wikiutil.link_tag(request, url,
> 	    text, formatter=fmt, **kw) + '<sup>?</sup>' + attach_link

As I do not use that at all, I am maybe the wrong one to comment whether 
this is better or not. ;)

> Just some suggestions. Otherwise, I must admit, I'm very happy. No serious problems, easy to set up. Thanks for such a useful engine :-)

We all love it. ;)