On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 12:32 PM, Dan Bron <j...@bron.us> wrote: >> Any reason why I shouldn't just >> go ahead with this? > > Well, I see a few: ...
I 70% agree with you, Dan. At least I agree that you have a point and see the issues very clearly: i.e. as clearly as (I think) I do. But I'm going to quarrel nonetheless. Hope you don't mind. Then I want to know where we're up to. Or (I suppose that means) where *I'm* up to... (...floundering under detail!) This thread has grown vast. But this is not a plea to limit further discussion, because good ideas are still pouring out thick'n'fast. > we haven't finalized the format yet (so if we make a change, we'll get >backwards compatibility issues), When I volunteered to take charge of NuVoc (my working name for http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Vocabulary/xxx ) I was daunted by these issues. But (not meaning to boast) I've been here before. I have a track record in this area. >we don't even know what tools we'll use to enforce the final structure (eg >CSS, transclusion, or other tools invisible in the Wikitext and to page >authors), Horses for courses. Trust me. (...no I don't expect you to do that. But may I say that APWJ posed me far worse problems.) And... no, I'm not the best man for the job. I could name names who I believe could do it slicker and better. If they're all set to volunteer I won't fight them for the privilege. >automatically posting all the pages will make it more difficult to distinguish >"work done" from "work to be done" (using the Wiki's natural "red link" >mechanisms), and autoposting all the pages enjoys no particular advantage over >creating a template/example page to copy/paste from. That's not my experience with the recent APWJ exercise. I had the option to generate all the Wiki pages myself, and require volunteers to edit them, or simply let volunteers generate their own Wiki pages from (basically) book-chapters. I chose the wrong one... and it more than quadrupled my work. Wiki has this real neat functionality to pace work by letting you work with absent pages. It doesn't adequately support the present task. I'm going to have to retrofit content to format anyway, I'm resigned to that. A comprehensive template might save me some work, but I judge it won't. What *will* save me work is if I populate /Vocabulary/<primitive> myself, rather than control the resulting human variety where an army of intelligent people creatively interpret the same sparse instructions in unforeseen ways. We're at the stage where we can go with the template and samples we've got, or carry on elaborating them. But why is that "exclusive-or"? I propose we do both. No reason why an immature template (which it is) should hold up volunteers generating content from right now. But please, if I'm to control the workflow, let me choose my tools. These tools entail volunteers filling the vessels I shall give them, not creating their own. The vessel will be a simple one, oh so simple. I promise. Ian ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
