Comments on: Italic tags

Italic tags

PrinceValium — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 07:33:01 -0800

Looks like Metafilter didn't drink its V8 today. Close your italics tags, people!

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 07:43:14 -0800

Miguel explained in the thread how this happened. But my question is, how come the italics finally go off at the lowest entry (for me) of November 9th? VegiTo's. Is this the case for everybody else? Are there two close-italics tags in that FPP or something?

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 07:45:02 -0800

Duh. It's called View Source. Yeah, VeGiTo put a gratuitous close-italic tag in that FPP for some reason. Way to think ahead!

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 08:10:25 -0800

Using Safari, comments and posts often appear in Preview missing the last 10% or so. I have to paste back the full text, preview again and, if the preview contains the full text (which it always does the second time), I post and the full text is posted.

This time, however, it was the post title that was truncated. So I filled it in again, including the final italics-closing tag. I previewed: it was all there. But after I'd posted, to my horror, it was that damn truncated version that appeared.

Then the preview of my first comment, explaining what had happened, appeared in italics. I added an opening close-italics tag and the italics disappeared.

Is it entirely browser-related? Do macs secretly suck, after all? It only happens on MeFi. And my latest posts to the front page, after I press post, produce the famous long error message. But when I reopen MeFi the post is there.

I'm sorry if I unwittingly broke the front page. That's the last time I'm using italics in a post title, in any case.

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 08:11:40 -0800

Prince: is this V8 something I'd need a Bloody Mary to appreciate?

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 08:24:07 -0800

Miguel, I sometimes get that from cutting and pasting something with an "illegal" character--sometimes curly quotes or em-dashes...they copy into the box ok, but when i preview they're cut off at that point...you might want to retype all special characters and punctuation. (i'm safari too)

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 08:30:51 -0800

Oh I see, amberglow - was it the acute accent I placed on the I of Nerdissimo? Because that was indeed where the text was cut off. So, are they illegal? Damn. What are we accent-addicted (but civilized!) races to do? ;)

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 08:45:19 -0800

as far as i know, you can use them if you retype them in, but not as just pasted text : <

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 08:51:20 -0800

I did type it - and retype it. Perhaps the logistics of the title box are of an earlier vintage than the rest of the front page posting code?

That (i'm safari too) is rich, coming from you, the guy who practically forced me to buy this bloody imac in the first place! :)

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 09:11:00 -0800

That's the last time I'm using italics in a post title, in any case.
Easy to say feeling some guilt here, yet it's in writing now; are you sure?

By: me3dia

me3dia — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 09:13:16 -0800

I've noticed that the parser is converting ASCII codes to the character they represent in preview. That's not a good thing, especially if people aren't catching it.
Not accusing you, Miguel, just pointing out an unfortunate bug/feature.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 09:43:34 -0800

That (i'm safari too) is rich, coming from you, the guy who practically forced me to buy this bloody imac in the first place! :)
I get cash and prizes for each person i convince to buy a mac--your switch paid for my vacation ; >

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 10:27:49 -0800

How strange! The front page has mysteriously been de-italicized and here we are, left to look like a right bunch of bananas.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 10:50:39 -0800

was it the acute accent I placed on the I of Nerdissimo?

Maybe the parser knows that Italian superlatives don't take acute accents.

By: wendell

wendell — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 10:55:21 -0800

Hey, Miguel does have a cute accent...
What? Acute? <EmilyLatella> Nevermind. </EmilyLatella>

By: dabitch

dabitch — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 11:04:13 -0800

Bananas? Speak for yourself, I'm a Chiquita! ;)

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 18:54:34 -0800

Maybe the parser knows that Italian superlatives don't take acute accents

Não era italiano, meu caro Dr. Chapéu de Línguas, era português: portuguesíssimo! Ou não saberá o meu amigo que a moda hoje, lançada pelo Mateus, é dirigirmo-nos aos outros na nossa própria língua? ;)

By: wendell

wendell — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 20:20:49 -0800

That's easy for you to say.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 20:35:33 -0800

Miguel, am I understanding (to stretch a term somewhat) you to say that Portuguese uses the -issimo ending? I mean, for its own words? Cause otherwise, I think you're being a little hard on languagehat.

Or maybe you're just being a little hard on...

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 21:17:15 -0800

*It wasn't Italian, my dear doctor languagehat, it was Portuguese: very Portuguese! Surely you know, my dear friend, that the fashion today, set by Matteo, is to address others in our own native language?

soyjoy: although many centuries have passed since we received our first lessons from our Roman conquerors (who stayed in Portugal for 700 years), Portuguese is still, in many a way, a version of Italian. In fact, it's more like Latin than modern Italian itself. The only difference, in this case, is that we accent the I in íssimo.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 23:29:15 -0800

Prince: is this V8 something I'd need a Bloody Mary to appreciate?

But there's a second part implied with that in-joke, and we do assume that you, of all people, have a Bloody Mary.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 00:28:50 -0800

Surely you know, my dear friend, that the fashion today, set by Matteo, is to address others in our own native language?

nu splork neddinger, pomus nanstrudel!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 07:30:26 -0800

Miguel: Sorry—Portugee isn't one of my languages, and I figure if it looks like an Italian superlative and quacks like an Italian superlative, it must be an Italian superlative. Learn something every day.

And at least this whole contretemps has led quonsar to reveal his native language! I must say, though, I think nanstrudel is a little strong, even for MeFi.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 07:38:56 -0800

This is no place for discussion of your manstrudel, quonsar....

By: carter

carter — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 08:14:47 -0800

What are we accent-addicted (but civilized!) races to do?

It looks like you've got accents figured out, but if you still have problems you could try using HTML 'special characters,' e.g. type &_#_2_3_3_; but with the underscores removed for é. One minor problem is as that as the parser converts the "and-hash" string to the special character each time you preview, you lose this string in the next iteration of the preview box. So it's best to compose in a text app (e.g. Note Pad, SimpleText,) and then cut and paste your finely honed comment to the post comment box each time you preview. Also, using the text app will eliminate any other curly-quote problems.

A list of special characters is here. A (smallish?) pony might be to add a thesaurus of special character strings to MeFi so that they are recognised as special characters and are carried over to the next iteration of the comment box as strings.

By: jfuller

jfuller — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 13:53:27 -0800

> look like a right bunch of bananas

Um. A left bunch, by and large