[REBOL] Re: Some thoughts
From: joel:neely:fedex at: 24-Aug-2002 20:37
Hi, Petr,
Petr Krenzelok wrote:
> Gabriele Santilli wrote:
>
> >Hello all,
> >
> >... yesterday I was having a look at Vanilla. (Hey, that's
> >really great --- I think I should have had a look at
> >wikis before... :)
> >
>
> Well, maybe a time to get into Wiki too. Is it anything like
> IOS?
>
Not AFAICT.
> If not - why is it important? :-) Does it enable cooperation?
>
That's the whole idea!
> How difficult is it to set-up, etc. etc.
>
Very little effort. The last one I wrote used one main cgi
script (with a couple of stand-alone helpers that actually
could have been additional functions inside the main script),
an html page for the front door, another html page which is
used as a template for generated pages, and a .css file for
ease of managing style issues.
> ...it appeared to me as some chat/message board.
>
It can certainly be used in that fashion, but that's like
saying that telephones are a device to allow teen-aged girls
to giggle about their favorite pop stars.
> Is there any relatively short (less than 10 pages :-)
> introduction to what is Wiki good for?
>
Think collaborative, web-based scrapbook. Then think how you
could use such a tool. I've used mine as a workspace for ideas
on articles to write or in progress, and as a scratchpad to
collect useful URLs (sort of a personal blog).
The ones I've installed at work have been used for:
- agendas for upcoming meetings
- minutes of past meetings
- maintenance of both of the above using a laptop during the
meeting itself
- tracking bug reports
- to-do lists for small-scale project management
- setting up check-lists for installation of production software
- keeping an up-to-date on-call schedule
- logging trouble reports received by an on-call staff member
- tracking requests for user accounts
Below are some notes from the latest one I've written (known
internally as the "eXtremeWeb"):
8<--------
What's the point?
The eXtremeWeb is a minimalist implementation of a wiki web
site. The word "wiki" comes from Hawaiian, and means "quick".
The goal of a wiki site is to provide a flexible, living,
participatory communication channel to a community of users.
* LIKE any other web site, a wiki site is made up of HTML
pages which can contain links among themselves or to other
off-site web content.
* UNLIKE other approaches to site construction, a wiki site
requires no tool but a browser, and eliminates the need
for HTML skills.
As is common with wiki sites, the eXtremeWeb takes the notion
of collaboration to the extreme; any member of the community
can create new pages (called "topics") and edit any topic that
already exists. The key principles are:
Do The Right Thing
We're all grownups who respect each others' work and
contributions.
Do The Simplest Thing That Works
A collaborative community can establish conventions/agreements,
either permanently or on a try-out basis, for their work
together without enforcing those conventions by an inflexible
mechanism.
We Are A Work In Process
By keeping the mechanisms as simple as possible, it's easy to
try (and change) approaches within the community. But the
simple foundation of the engine can be extended with specific
new features when it becomes clear to the community that
they're worth having.
...
8<--------
That last sentence describes a situation that has happened more
than once; it becomes clear that a new feature would be useful
based on prior experience with a more minimalist tool. Since the
engine itself is only a few pages of code, it's often easy to
extend it to have a new capability when such becomes appropriate.
--
; Joel Neely joeldotneelyatfedexdotcom
REBOL [] do [ do func [s] [ foreach [a b] s [prin b] ] sort/skip
do function [s] [t] [ t: "" foreach [a b] s [repend t [b a]] t ] {
| e s m!zauafBpcvekexEohthjJakwLrngohOqrlryRnsctdtiub} 2 ]
