(In reply to comment #0)

I believe that the interface of the api.php page
(http://translatewiki.net/w/api.php) is quite difficult to read. Few HTML
formatting is used for the page, no table of contents at the top of the page
and the sections associated with this exist and the design is pretty much the
default. It might also be nice to have some option to get back to the wiki from
the api.php file.

This should probably be split into multiple bugs, for easier dissection and discussion. One bug for adding a table of contents, one bug for adding a "go back to wiki" link, one bug for adding more HTML formatting, etc.

Even though the API documentation page is mostly read by technical guys, I
believe that a nice GUI would also help those (see for example
http://www.flickr.com/services/api/).

Our version of that Flickr page would probably be http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API. As you note, directly accessing api.php is supposed to largely be for developers (most of whom just ctrl/cmd-F on the page and search for what they need).

(In reply to comment #1)

Even though the API documentation page is mostly read by technical guys, I
believe that a nice GUI would also help those (see for example
http://www.flickr.com/services/api/).

Our version of that Flickr page would probably be
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API. As you note, directly accessing api.php is
supposed to largely be for developers (most of whom just ctrl/cmd-F on the page
and search for what they need).

Exactly, I still do visit api page, and use the browsers text search thing on it.

I believe it was discussed about doing the anchors (needed for the TOC). It was decided to be a bit strange. As such, I implemented being able to request specific sections of the help screen. Coming in 1.17

See bug 19721 for info about that one

quote:
(In reply to comment #1)

Need to have some way to indicate an anchor in the text that is only displayed
in fm mode...

I see no sane way to do this.

"Go back to wiki" link is probably somewhat pointless, I mean, if you went directly to the api page, you're not going back. If you went to it via some onwiki link, you've got your browsers navigation tools, surely?

Certainly, if you've got some specific ideas...

I've added word wrap at 100 chars (or something) in SVN, which might be worth backporting to 1.17 for the benefits (Roan, ok with that, as a usability improvement?)

We do link back to the MW.org docs at the top. When Zak, Roan and I have finished tidying them up, it might be a nice thing to add some more specific links

Is there really any input on this (that is explicitly actionable), or can I close as invalid?

Closing as invalid.

I'm not sure what we can really do, or whether we should really need to do anything...