[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #12423: Include default code editor

[WordPress Trac]

#12423: Include default code editor
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 Reporter:  scribu           |       Owner:  afercia
     Type:  feature request  |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  4.8
Component:  Editor           |     Version:  3.0
 Severity:  normal           |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  close            |     Focuses:  accessibility
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Comment (by FolioVision):

 Aaron (@jorbin), the current editor is horribly out of date scrap code
 which is totally uninspiring and hardly usable. No wonder no one uses it.
 As you noted, the amount of energy going into the Medium-copycat visual
 editor is enormous (fancy names like Gutenberg don't make it any more
 original). The work done there is no excuse for not integrating a high
 quality code editor like CodeMirror which is a relatively easy task.

 WordPress users have been waiting seven years for a better code editor.
 The people participating in this conversation didn't invest their time and
 focus now just to have a core committer try to sweep the mess under the
 carpet again.

 ----

 @rianrietveld You wrote:

 > We are changing a key interface on the platform, users have expectations
 about how things work and are now confronted with a complete different
 design. This not only affects users with assistive technology, but all
 users of the Text interface.

 You can't be serious? Do you think there are any sighted users of the
 WordPress code editor who could not figure out how to use highlighted
 syntax? That's the main gain with a better code editor. And small visual
 and functional tweaks here and there. Syntax highlighting is an
 '''immediate improvement''' in usability.

 Yes, a code editor with visually highlighted syntax does nothing for users
 with assistive technology. Hence the current plain text editor should get
 enhancements as discussed in depth above with @zersiax.

 So it's really come down to there are some people with limited vision (or
 no vision), therefore the rest of us will get no visual cues when editing.
 It's something like insisting that as athletes with legs have an advantage
 over athletes without legs, we are now going to cut everybody's legs off.
 I deliberately avoided making such a comparison earlier as we should all
 be able to work together without undercutting one another's work or
 software experience. We should work '''together''' to add a code editor
 with visual highlights AND at the same time enhance the plain text code
 editor for those who use screen readers.

 Surely the unrelenting focus of the accessible group is not to bring
 everything down to lowest common denominator?

 It's funny you bring up distraction free mode.

 > The new interface is useful but should not be implemented by default, we
 have to inform users of the new interface with an opt-in to use it. So the
 new interface should not be switched on by default but selected in the
 settings, for example now with distraction-free mode.

 Distraction free mode needs to be enabled every time you want to use it
 and is more a distraction than a help. Everyone hates it. Where the switch
 needs to be is in user preferences next to the Visual Code Editor checkbox
 where there should be a clear option to choose either:

 1. text based code editor enhanced for assistive devices.
 2. visual code editor with syntax highlighting.

 I know ahead of time which version 99% of users would find more useful. So
 do you. Numbers aren't everything: it doesn't mean that the enhancements
 to the text based code editor are any less important. Still numbers and
 utility '''are''' something.

 ----

 With @afercia's intervention I see there is a concerted effort from core
 to leave WordPress users with a really crap code editor. Do our core
 principles include:

 * staying almost decades behind state of the art interfaces
 * not taking advantage of the hard work of other open source project
 (Mozilla's Ace, CodeMirror)
 * a not made here mentality (if we don't code it from scratch, we're not
 interested)

 I cannot believe programmers are writing with a straight face that syntax
 highlighted code editor view is not a significant improvement (it would be
 perhaps the most significant improvement in WordPress
 [https://foliovision.com/2016/12/wordpress-improvements in the last three
 iterations], after retina image support in 4.4).

 Let's try and get this show back on the road in a positive way. The time
 has more than come for syntax highlighting in code view in WordPress. The
 time has more than come to retire wpautop and for code integrity when
 switching between visual and code mode in WordPress. It would be great to
 join the post-2010 CMS and editing world. It's 2017 already, mesdames et
 messieurs.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/12423#comment:92>
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