Page Anchor

: ...part of the problem is that wiki lacks a document position marker convention similar to the "#" for URLs. It is tough to factor without a finer granularity. "See 38% of the way down on topic FooBar" is awkward and not sufficient over time as text changes. It is like requiring fewer functions, but that results in larger functions that do multiple things, which most agree is bad (there is a name for that which escapes me right now). Either I create more topics, which also generates complaints (see below), or I duplicate. I am stuck between a rock and a hard-place.

PageAnchor is a tentative solution to the problem described above. Use this WikiTag to mark a particular place in a given Wiki page. Example: you have a page that's very long, and you want to mark a certain point. Use PageAnchor like this:

PageAnchor: foozleWidgets

This is a block of text discussing foozleWidgets. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, and all that jazz. Yadda yadda. Something insightful.

To refer to that section of the page from elsewhere, say "Go to PageAnchor: Foozle Widgets on SomeCertainPage".

Any likelihood of it being built into wiki any time soon? Those unfamiliar with the convention may just be confused. And, it still requires manual text searching.

This is clumsy and cures the symptoms only. The real problem is that some pages are TooLargeToGrasp. Therefore, suggested solution 2: RefactorMercilessly.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but sometimes that's just not going to happen. Until it does, you need PageAnchor.

And, some people don't want "too many" topics. I get complaints all the time when I try to refactor toward more topics in order to avoid repetition of statements or ideas. We need another solution.

PageAnchor doesn't help at all with avoiding repetition. If a page is large enough to need PageAnchor, it should be split into separate pages. If it's too repetitive to be worth more topics, the duplication should be deleted and then it should be split. -- JonathanTang <

I am not sure what you mean here. I'm having PronounConfusion?. [AT are you referring to Jonathan comment above? It appears clear to me and I am confused by your confusion.]

[Re: "Splitting large page" in a thoughtful manner. I also think it is a "just not going to happen" case. I do not recall seeing one instance of that since early 2004]

This is a ParagraphName

I see the PageAnchor as described on this page to be more akin to a ParagraphName. If it requires reference and uses a WikiName, It probably should be created as a WikiPage. As you can see by this example, the ParagraphName stands out due to being bold and separated from what it names by a blank line and perhaps preceded by a four-dash HorizontalRule.

If the word following the PageAnchor is not a WikiPage, but instead one representing WantedPages, one might later create a page with its name by using the FullSearch function as in:

If one types in PageAnchor in the box above, as of 20070505, 36 occurrences are found. Refactorers and WikiGnomes might use this to create new pages, split from pages where the word following it is common.

Gotos Live! (as page anchors)

CategoryWikiTag