Mike Smith Eddies Wiki Stuff

You said you would "...send you the revised PageFormatting.cpp " of the EddiesWiki - I would appreciate that. - Thanks in advance. I'm going to start the work on my ideas just after the first of the year, and a look at how you accomplished what you have would be of value. -- DonaldNoyes

Will do, Donald. Nag me if I don't get to it within the next few days!

Thanks, received and tried the compiled Wikiserver, works as advertised! Good. Let me know if you run into any problems with the source file.

I see that DonaldNoyes refers to my InterWiki mods to EddiesWiki on his page http://donaldr.noyes.com/ewiki.htm

I guess I should mention that I've made further mods to EddiesWiki that might be of interest.

InterWiki functionality described above - use shortcuts as prefixes to WikiNames to indicate that they are actually pages on remote Wikis
Minor mods to allow compilation with GCC and/or Dev-C++ (still Win32 only though)
Added nolink: prefix which implements SixSingleQuotes functionality (previously missing from EddiesWiki)
Added link: prefix which implements the opposite functionality (i.e. forces a non-WikiName to be a link)
Optional name/password authentication when editing pages. (Very MickeyMouse implementation at this point, but as I say, it's completely optional)

Things I'm contemplating adding/changing:

Better title/text searching - at the very least, allow multiple keywords with either AND or OR combination, possibly full boolean search
"MultiWiki" - instead of the single "Pages" subdirectory, have multiple subdirectories, each containing its own wiki, all served up by the same executable, by adding the subdirectory to the URL (e.g. instead of http://hostname/StartPage, you could have http://hostname/Wiki1/StartPage, http://hostname/Wiki2/StartPage, etc.)
- comments triggered by the preceding bullet have been moved to the next segment of this page to avoid disrupting the prior flow, as they grow.
Support for Linux, built via GCC (will have to wait till I build a Linux development system, though)

Based on my limited experience so far and my evolving usage patterns, I think this would be a very useful feature. If it proceeds, I would even like to suggest support support for different versions of the pageTemplate.html file, possibly in each subdirectory (or perhaps even versions within each) since I frequently find myself wishing to view the same content in different 'skins'. -- HansWobbe

Can you explain your comment in MikeSmithEddiesWikiStuff? I'm having difficulty in understanding it fully. -- vk

Vicki:

To start, I'd like to state that I'm not entirely sure that what I have in mind is consistent with the original comment that caused me to post a response. That being said, the following hopefully clarifies what I am looking for.

I like Eddies wiki a lot, to the point of having become a passionate user of the MvdW version, especially because its Include function lets me create nested pages that are effectively collected automatically, for each specific audience. (This allows me to literally have OnceAndOnlyOnce instances of text within the scope of the Pages folder.) As you know, the pageTemplate.html file that also exists in the Pages folder can be modified to control the resulting display. Since I wish to be able to have different 'views' of a page (when writing, I find it efficient to see the sidebar displaying the backlinks; when 'publishing', I prefer to not have the sidebar consume screen space), I need to edit the pageTemplate file to remove it. Ideally, I would like to have concurrent windows that allow me to see two such different views simultaneously. I read into the original suggestion of subFolders a relatively simple-to-implement possibility of having separate pageTemplate files in each subFolder. Hence my supporting Post.
There are, obviously, other solutions to my need. In fact, Elrey's mods with the ability to have CSS files for each Category of pages is quite attractive. Unfortunately, I am forming the opinion that Elrey does not (yet?) support the Include function I have become dependent on. Furthermore, the differences in the markup for these two different extensions are sufficient to make it too difficult to use them to access the same Pages folder. (Also, when I tried this, I found that Elrey does not support a command line switch to allow selection of the Folder while the Mdvw version crashes when I point it at a Pages Folder that is a child of Elrey's.)
Again, I can think of several design suggestions that could resolve this for me, but I have not yet started to post suggestions. After all, I'm still a relatively inexperienced (but entirely grateful) beneficiary of all of these developments.

-- hwo

Hmmm - the first thing that comes to mind is that although a sidebar seems to have potential, actual examples of its exploitation are very limited. If I were keen to have the backlinks hanging around, I would probably change the title link to give the backlinks in a new window, so that I could open and close it as desired. If you had done that, would you still be keen on having a sidebar? Were there other skins you had in mind? BTW, normal page inclusion was done by Eddie for V1.1 beta, and also by Ryan, so it's not just in MVDW's version. MVDW added the ability to include an arbitrary page (such as the sidebar) in the template. -- vk

If I were keen to have the backlinks hanging around, I would probably change the title link to give the backlinks in a new window, so that I could open and close it as desired. If you had done that, would you still be keen on having a sidebar?

Darn it, I may once again be lost in the forest :-) I've tried several times to think of what you might be suggesting and I'm not making progress. I'm not all sure what you mean by change the title link. I've looked at the pageTemplate file on the assumption that this is where you are suggesting I introduce a change. If so, then it seems to me that I'm back where I started, needing to have two separate versions of the file, concurrently. Furthermore, while I appreciate the value of your suggestion that I spawn a separate Window for the backlinks (I really like this since it would let me make much better use of my screen space), I fail to see how two such windows would be co-ordinated - in other words, if I link to a new page in one menu, could the contents of the second window, showing the backlinks to the page in the first, be updated automatically? I suspect this is possible, since I have other software (e.g. TheBrain) that is capable of this, but so far I have been lead to believe that this requires some relatively sophisticated programming that is probably not within the scope of the current versions of EddiesWiki.

Now, I am really beginning to feel quite guilty about dragging you into such an extensive dialogue, so at the very least, I must ask you if you would prefer to move on to other matters than my weird interests. If not, I'm certainly pleased to continue and will ideally, be able to morph these matters into some input that the software developers may find useful or at least interesting. Also, I feel I should at least ask if we should relocate this text to a more appropriate environment than this page?

Regards, (Its really a pleasure, for me to be in touch with you.) Hans

Mike, please can you email me? I'd like to roll your changes into V1.1 with your permission. Thanks -- EddieEdwards (eddie@tinyted.net)

Hi Mike,

Would it be possible to get a copy of your source code changes to Eddie's Wiki?

Well, actually, I've sent my changes to Eddie to merge into his own release 1.1, which AIUI will contain further enhancements, so you might want to wait for that. Also, um, I have no way to contact you! -- MikeSmith

What about a download page? I suppose a lot of people would like it. -- FridemarPache

Maybe after I fix/replace the user "authentication". I'm somewhat embarrassed by it, and further annoyed (at myself) for being too lazy to learn how to do it right. -- MikeSmith

Hi Eddie, Mike

I find the idea of a stand-alone Wiki on my computer very attractive! I am a little bit unsure about different code bases from at least you two. Wouldn't it be a good idea to start a Sourceforge project? To have the source code in a cvs there would make life easier for others to either use the latest version or even contribute to it, of course with your permission. -- BerndGoetz

CategoryWikiImplementation