==About Me==

Hello,

I'm a software engineer living and working in Tokyo. I mostly work on contracts but sometimes have time for things that interest me... things such as Creole... which I think is wonderful... I'm currently building a [WikiTool|http://www.moonbase.net.au/WikiTool] to provide Creole parser and key/text/xhtml exporter functions for wiki engines built with [webkool|http://www.moonbase.net.au/Webkool] and [key|http://www.moonbase.net.au/Key]. It has a document object model which allows exporting in different formats from the original Creole parsed text.

I'm hosting a number of small sites for my family and friends. All sites are based on Creole 0.5 and use free designer templates.

* [[http://www.gooseyboots.com/Home|Gooseyboots.com]] //Mum's site//
* [[http://www.hirose.ws/Home|Hirose.ws]] //Father-in-law's site//
* [[http://www.kidmuni.com/Home|Kidmuni.com]] //My son's unicycle site//
* [[http://www.moonbase.com.au/Home|Moonbase.com.au]] //Company site//
* [[http://www.moonbase.net.au/WikiTool|Moonbase.net.au]] //Network site//
* [[http://www.wharton.bz/Wiki/Home|Wharton.bz]] //Dad's site//

It's an interesting formula... **designer template + wiki engine = editable website**

Obviously these are not conventional wiki's, nonetheless, Creole plays an important part in making it practical and easy for my family and friends to edit and maintain their sites on their own. Everyone's doing pretty well after some initial hand-holding. The single biggest editing issue that I've found is that a new line does not force a line break, but other than that, things are not so bad (yes, I know, I did vote for wiki style line breaks...). Providing a [[http://www.kidmuni.com/CheatSheet|simplified cheat sheet]] has helped immensely. None of my family and friends are putting space after bullet/hash when making lists (even though I supported the Require Space After Bullet Proposal and my cheat sheet shows SPACES...). I try to //cleanup// every now and again. Sandbox pages which are not password protected attract spam. I've made a bit of a mess for myself by providing alternative headings to support table of contents... will have to resolve that at some point... I've learned the hard way that it doesn't make sense to provide alternatives!

I haven't yet looked at Creole 0.6 properly because I've been kind of busy with work lately (and setting up sites ;-). I'll try and check that out before the extension expires, there seems to be some resistance moving forwards. Slowly but surely, there's no need to rush things through.

Thanks for all the hard work that has gone into the Creole specifications so far!

Cheers,

Mark Wharton

+ 8190 9834 2559 (Japan)

==My Commitment==

I thought it might be a good time for me to make a public commitment to Creole. That commitment is that whatever is decided for the //final// Creole spec, here at wikicreole.org, I will support 100% in my wiki implementation (barring ineptitude on my part to implement ;-). I might not agree or be happy with everything in the end, but being involved in the process, means I have nothing to be complain about, and after all, the sum of Creole should/will be greater than its parts.

Sure, all of this should be obvious, nonetheless, I believe it is worth stating here directly.