It's over 20 years since I was a novice use. But last Sunday (31 Aug) I
came as close to it as I'll ever get again.
I needed to understand someone else's code for an app I'm writing. He used
a primitive: Map ({::) which I was unfamiliar with, so I turned to NuVoc to
grok his use of it.
Shock-horror! I found the page opaque and baffling to read. Embarrassing,
because I'd originally written it.
https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Vocabulary/curlylfcoco
My problem stemmed mainly from the wording and code layout. It did not
conform to the rules Henry and I tried to keep to when writing NuVoc. So I
spent an evening fixing it.
But my embarrassment wasn't over. The following day I was alerted by
MediaWiki to a fellow Nuvocian reverting all my changes.
Out of malice? Perish the thought.
A blunder out of inexperience? Maybe.
Because they thought the page "looked better" as it was? Now that's more
likely.
The point is, I don't know. And I don't like conjecturing another person's
motives.
Now I don't "own" j wiki, far less NuVoc. When people ask my permission to
change a page, I tell them to just do it, and let's see who hollers.
But I'm grateful this has happened. It exposes holes in our co-operative
working methods…
1. There's a discussion page attached to each wiki page.
We use it nowhere near enough. It's the ideal place to explain our reasons
for doing something controversial, like trashing another NuVocian's hard
work.
2. NuVoc was written to rules, but nowhere are these rules clearly stated.
That's something I'm going to fix.
Yes, we already have:
About the Accessible Dictionary: how and why
https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/Vocabulary/AboutNuVoc
But nobody looking for a NuVoc style guide would think of reading it. And
it's not fit-for-purpose. It needs to be snappier, omitting reasons and
simply stating the rules we used.
Meanwhile I'll restore my edits. And invite my redactor to engage with me
on the Discussion page of Map ({::).
Ian Clark
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