Wala Wiki

Wala is yet another WikiClone, originally written by BrentNewhall. Brent and BrennenBearnes currently maintain versions with slightly different features. Both may be found at:

http://walawiki.org/

You can play around with a working version here:

http://p1k3.com/wala/ http://p1k3.com/wala/wala.pl?WalaCode

Wala has a slightly different intent from Wiki (which is why it's called a Wala, which is Hawaiian for "talk"). A Wala intends to promote collaborative discussion, rather than collaborative creation of topical webpages. On Wiki, there's a general tendency to consolidate ThreadMode discussion into DocumentMode. Wala tends to encourage ThreadMode.

As such, Wala has a text edit box at the bottom of every page, which allows users to append text to any page at any time (a feature not unique to Wala, I'm aware). Also, the "Edit this page" link and other editing links are minimized.

Wala is also intended for people who are unfamiliar with the Wiki concept. It hopes to bridge the gap for those who desire to contribute to a page, but are intimidated by the idea of editing the complete contents of a page, just so they can add a thought.

Wala has no method to search text. Too simple to usual use as wiki.

Would adding search make it "usable"? I'm confused by your terminology, as well, as it obviously is usable. What definition of "usable" do you mean? -- BrentNewhall

Of course Wala is usable for what it does. But without some search capability, many applications of a wiki would not be well-served by Wala. Add search and you've got a much stronger feature set.

But that's the whole idea - Wala is usable for what it does. Obviously the creator didn't want it to do more. If they did, they could have just used Wiki instead!

There's still no search feature as such, but I've added simple two-way links and an index page. Search wouldn't be hard to implement, but I haven't felt a strong need for it over the last couple years of use. Maybe Google's ubiquity has made me lazy. -- BrennenBearnes

:Also note that, given the two-way links, you can treat the URL as a search feature - http://p1k3.com/wala/wala.pl?TextToSearchFor

Zensunni: Cool idea! That 'chat box' should even be in its own frame at the bottom of the browser... if there was a way to 'point' to the paragraph you're currently reading, then you could use this box to add your thought immediately after. That's basically what we do on Wiki anyway.

: How to do it: since the chat box is on the viewing page, cram the page text inside the form too and have a series of radio buttons after each paragraph, which indicate where the new text is going to go. For editing the whole thing (or cleaning up) the regular edit link will still work

Hmmm. Yes, that is an interesting idea. I really dislike the idea of the page cluttered with radio buttons, though. -- BrentNewhall

Zensunni: I'm glad you keep the EditorsName? to the left, like a chat conversation. That mode reads easiest on the C2 Wiki, too (more interesting, easier to skip if you're not in the mood).

: The "add a comment" idea can be found on MeatBall's copy of EasySubmission, as well as part of the LayeredWikiInterface. -- Chris Purcell (KritTer)

Acknowledged. I'm not suggesting the idea is new or unique to Wala. Thanks for the links! -- BrentNewhall

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