Entering square bracket in text

[Harald Kapp]

How do I enter square brackets within the text body of a post? It seems the forum software tries to interpret these brackets as formatting commands and deletes the if it can't evaluate them in a meaningful way.
What I want to type is e.g.

array[i]

My current circumvention is using a code box as above. I'm sure there is a more elegant way, but which one?

 

[Ian]

Unfortunately, the [ i ] tag is the BBCode for italics, so I don't think there's way to use it within a post, unless it's in a code box or has additional spacing to break the tag.

I've been testing out the next version of XenForo and they have an "inline" code option (and there's a plugin for this version to do the same). This means that you can insert code snippets within the body of text. Here's an example image I found on their forum:



Would that be a useful workaround? I don't think it's something I could fix entirely, but adding inline code options may help. If it's not much different to using the existing code tags, I'll leave it be - but I'm happy to add it if it's useful.

 

[Harald Kapp]

Would that be a useful workaround?

why, yes.

 

[Ian]

Excellent . I've installed this now.

Here is is in action if you want to use the [i] string in a post .

You just need to wrap the inline code with the [ICODE] tags. I'll see if I can add it to the WYSIWYG editor.

 

[Harald Kapp]

[ and { and / and ]}\
Really nice, thanks Ian.

 

[Ian]

No problem! Glad that we've got a quick fix in place

I'm having problems adding the code in to the editor, but I'll persist and see if I can get it in to the "insert..." menu. If I can't get it there, then it may need to be used manually for the moment (until we upgrade to XF2 in the future).

 

[Ian]

I should also mention that square brackets should normally work (i.e. [ and { and / and ]), but they'll disappear when using one of the tags listed on this page:

https://www.electronicspoint.com/help/bb-codes

[i] [b] [u] will probably be the most common ones, especially "i" in programming related posts. It's a shame that the forum software doesn't invoke them only when there's a matching closing bracket, as that would avoid the problem.

 

[Harald Kapp]

It's a shame that the forum software doesn't invoke them only when there's a matching closing bracket,

The software seems to be better than you think: it amends the "missing" closing brackets

 

[(*steve*)]

What's the problem with array[i]?

 

[Ian]

What's the problem with array[i]?

I had to view your post to see how you did that! A very clever workaround using invisible [size=3] tags within the brackets to break the auto parsing .

 

[(*steve*)]

You're giving away all my secrets

Another way is if you set up the censoring to change \[ into [ and \] into ].

 

[Harald Kapp]

Another way is if you set up the censoring to change \[ into [ and \] into ].

I actually had tried these escape sequences before posting.

 

[(*steve*)]

I actually had tried these escape sequences before posting.

Yeah, they're not implemented here, but there is a way in the software to do it.

The "censoring" allows the operator of the software to provide a list of words and what they will be rendered as.

You might have "shit" become "****", to limit the effect of poor use of language. It's actually pretty ineffective at that because people will always come up with a way to say s.h.i.t, s#it, sh1t, etc., but it is useful for other things. I'm not certain, but it may be used to transform :-) into .

It does the change on the fly, after any markup has been performed, so the transformation itself can't generate tags.

Censoring /[ to [ this doesn't actually change the text, but it does change what you see. It's not an escape as such because there \ isn't a general "take what follows as literal" operator.

 

[FuZZ1L0G1C]

Browsing through EP's list of BB codes, the PLAIN tag may also work.
As in this online test..
Then enter inline[i]

 

[(*steve*)]

Well spotted!

array[i]

That works too, great.

[bold][plain]array[i][/plain][/bold]

 

[Ian]

Browsing through EP's list of BB codes, the PLAIN tag may also work.
As in this online test..
Then enter inline[i]

Oh boy, do I feel silly - the ability has been there all along! I even had a good search of the developer forums to see how to do this . Well, I've certainly learned something today . Good catch @FuZZ1L0G1C!

 

[Tha fios agaibh]

±μΩ I have a dumb question to ask.

How do you enter the characters ±μΩ on the fly while typing?

When I try to enter them they always pop up at the beginning like this (see first 3 characters).

 

[Ian]

±μΩ I have a dumb question to ask.

How do you enter the characters ±μΩ on the fly while typing?

When I try to enter them they always pop up at the beginning like this (see first 3 characters).

It should normally enter them where the cursor is (here's my test in Chrome on Windows 10: Ωμ±). If it's not doing that, I think it may be down to the browser - could you please let me know what you are using (and OS) and I'll see if I can replicate it and get it working .

 

[Harald Kapp]

I want to see them here: ±Ωμ - Works like a charm in Chrome under Windows 7 - µ even via keyboard (no need to access the icon, but need icons for Ω and ±).

 

[Tha fios agaibh]

Ok, I though there might be a trick to it.

I'm using a mobile phone.
Android 4.4.2