D Wiki

[Helmut Leitner]

Dear Brad (and others),

as you know (or maybe not) I've installed the wiki4d as a part of my enthusiasm
for D. There was an older wiki that didn't really work, was unsupported and slow.

The *real* work was done by Justin Calvarese and all the others contributing.

I did not invest in special adaptations that are typical for such projects
but I supported and kept the it running since March 2003. Last year I moved
it to a new server and the performance is good again.

My personal D-relationship went through ups and lows, but whatever the current
state is, I'll support this wiki as long as it is wanted or needed.

I'm not pissed off, if the community decides to switch. But you should think
about what you really need and not jump on something superficial.

Brad Roberts wrote:
> This has come up before and never really gone anywhere.  I've considered setting
> up a new, modern, wiki for us to migrate to.  Prowiki has a number of
> limitations that annoy me at least.  The biggest is it's history management
> sucks.  Looking at what changed over time is either too hard for the likes of me
> to figure out, or it's broken, or it just isn't available.

Sorry, this sounds fuzzy to me. What problem do you actually have?

There is a complete RCS-history of each page from day 1, e.g. 140 FrontPage-versions.
You have to store your user name with your "Preferences" to access this "Archive",
because ProWiki prefers not to expose it to search engine robots.

If you are unable to access it, we can probably add/improve some help text.

> That said, I've only ever run one wiki package, mediawiki, and it was a pain in
> the rear.  The debian packaging of it sucks.  I dunno if it's any easier to
> manage just off the official releases.

There are many people who like mediawiki, some dilike it, but all agree that
it is easy to get up and running, let's say in 5-30 minutes. You only would
need to worry if you want to run the server. Honestly, from what you are
writing, I do not think that you are up to this task.

The problems always start, when one wants it not to act or look like a flat
mediawiki encyclopedia. Or do something beyond the standard features.

Basically it should be sufficient for what the D-community needs.

> Anyone have a wiki package they've actually run (not just used via the web
> interface) that they can recommend?  An obvious one is likely to be Trac via
> dsource.  I've considered it, but personally I'm really not fond of trac (sorry).
> 
> Would any of you guys volunteer to help migrate content to it if one should
> spring up?  I'd be willing to be one of those volunteers, but there's a lot of
> content and it really shouldn't be moved over exactly as is.  A lot of
> re-organization should be done.
> 
> My thoughts were to put it at d.puremagic.com to subsume the entire site, with
> the exception of /issues which would continue to be the bugzilla installation.
> 
> Thoughts?

I think the main point is not to decide on some shiny new wiki package but
to have someone who guarantees the server, it's performance and support,
for the next few years, whatever system it is runnning.

Wiki4D has been an easy burden because the people using it have been very
nice and intelligent, needing a minimum of external support. Nevertheless
I wouldn't mind stopping it, because of the resources it needs.

Walter just needs to tell me when to switch the OFF-button.

Kind regards,
Helmut

P.S. Please send me an e-mail in case of something I should react to, because
      I check this news feed only every other month.

> Later,
> Brad