Wiki For Dummies

It's ironic that wiki is so simple that it favors the author. Yet, the installation of wikis still favor the techno illuminati. What is needed is a simple and straightforward Wiki for Dummies. For example, in the instructions provided for the base installation of simple wiki technology distributed with famous book about wiki, the language is cryptic and difficult to parse unless you are willing to work for several hours using the accompanying wiki DecoderRing at http://wikifubar.whatever. This is enough to turn the stomach of any dummy worth his salt.

Maybe what is needed is a WikiInstallationSupportGroup?.

Is it possible that we are ready to bring wiki to the dummies?

Yes, it's done. Take a look at http://216.119.126.25/index.cfm?doc=SWiki&wikiid=14 (BrokenLink: 2002/09/03) to install a SqueakWiki. Squeak is a programming language that was designed to let non-geeks program in it.

I managed to deploy a standard release of JspWiki to Tomcat in 10 minutes, though I am familiar with ApacheTomcat. The installation consisted of copying files into the Tomcat directory then editing "JspWiki.properties" to tell it where to store the page files.

Wikis with their own servers built in are easy, as are unsecure Wikis that should not go on public servers.

For reference, EddiesWiki (Currently Windows only) literally took 1 minute to deploy:

Download,
unzip,
run,
done.

(Unless if you have to remove Apache first, or don't mind the extra 8080 on the URI.)

To install GraphWiki,

install GraphViz
install RubyLanguage
Rip out Apache (or use 8080)
download the source ( off http://www.xpsd.com/MiniRubyWiki )
edit the top of miniRuby.rb to put in your logo, address & port
disable the tests (they require a few pages that aren't there yet)
run

In future, I'l try to approach EddiesWiki for ease of installation. I installed it on my first day at a new gig, started to get the crew hooked, then wrote GraphWiki test-first.

See SoftlySoftlyCatcheeMonkey.

CategoryDummies