User:Pelagic/Incubator/Comparison of MediaWiki editing interfaces June 2020
This is a broad comparison that covers both editing articles and contributing to discussions. Though a different platform, Phabricator is included for contrast. Wikimedia Space is not included due to its short lifespan.
I might add user scripts and gadgets when I learn them, but the main focus is interfaces that are available on a en-wp, WikiMedia, and MediaWiki generally.
| Editor | Description | Availability | URL parameter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop classic | Also called the "text area" editor. | Yes! | action=edit |
| Desktop visual | Visual Editor or "VE" (in original visual mode) | Not in Talk or WP namespaces. (Short of adding the magic code to the URL.) | veaction=edit |
| Desktop 2017 source | VE in source mode. Around time of development and release, known as the "New Wikitext Editor" (NWE). | Is opt-in beta feature on en-wp ,where it’s labelled “New wikitext mode”. Mutually exclusive with classic editor, need to visit Preferences to change. (Short of adding the magic code to the URL.) | veaction=editsource |
| Mobile wikitext | veaction=edit | ||
| Mobile wikitext (Javascript suppressed) | |||
| Mobile visual | veaction=editsource | ||
| iOS app | Edit only Articles. For other namespaces uses embedded browser. | ||
| SD source | Discussions on MediaWiki wiki. On fr-wp users can switch their talk page to SD. Extension not loaded on en-wp. | ||
| SD visual | |||
| DT Reply (source) | |||
| Phab |
| Editor | General | Move from editing page to next step | Preview | Preview button label | Diff (show changes) | Edit summary | Section details in edit summary | Mark as minor | Cancel editing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop classic | Single-page | N/A | Button (saves state in browsers that remover form submissions) | Preview | Yes, editable | ||||
| Desktop visual | Modal dialog | Publish page... | "Review your changes" button | No, have to use browser Back to exit editing mode. | |||||
| Desktop 2017 source | |||||||||
| Mobile wikitext | 5-line scrollable box. Accepts newlines (Return key). | Yes, not visible, not editable. | |||||||
| Mobile wikitext (Javascript suppressed) | |||||||||
| Mobile visual | 2-step wizard (similar to desktop dialog, but full page) | Chevron > (next) | WYSIWYG | "Review your changes" button, covered by onscreen keyboard. | 3-line scrollable box. No newlines. | No, not visiadded automatically. | Yes | X button | |
| iOS app | 3-step wizard | Mandatory step | No | ||||||
| SD source | Toggle to visual editing | ||||||||
| SD visual | WYSIWG | ||||||||
| DT Reply (source) | Live preview below edit box | ||||||||
| DT Reply (visual) | WYSIWG | ||||||||
| Phab | In-place toggle (non-editable). |
| Editor | Entry | Preview | Section details | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop classic | Single-line non-expandable box, can’t scroll horizontally on touch-screen. (1/2) | Yes, generated/updated with page preview (2/2) | Yes, pre-populated, can edit (2/2) | 5/6 |
| Desktop visual | 3-line scrollable box. No newlines. (2/2) | Yes, but have to go into diff view (1-2/2) | Pre-populated, but misleading: there is no section-edit mode (0-1/2) | 4/6 |
| Desktop 2017 source | Yes, shows at top of page preview | Yes, pre-populated, can edit | 6/6 | |
| Mobile wikitext | 5-line scrollable box. Accepts newlines (Enter/Return key), but they are concatenated on save. (2/2) | No | Yes, invisible, can’t edit, can’t delete (can add a second one FWIW) (0/2) | 2/6 |
| Mobile wikitext (Javascript suppressed) | ||||
| Mobile visual | 3-line scrollable box. No newlines. | No | Not populated, can hand-type (0/2) | 2/6 |
| iOS app | ||||
| SD source | No, auto-set to topic title. | No | Preset | 1/6 |
| SD visual | No, auto-set to topic title. | No | Preset | 1/6 |
| DT Reply (source) | Not in vers. 1.0 (automatically set to “Reply”, not visible, not editable) | No | Preset | 1/6 |
| DT Reply (visual) | Not in alpha (automatically set to “Reply”, not visible, not editable) | No | Preset | 1/6 |
| Phab | N/A, no separate History page. | — |