[Phpwiki-talk] Re: Development on phpwiki

[Reini U. <ru...@x-...>]

Dan Frankowski schrieb:
> I am going to devote more time to Phpwiki this summer. I may also get 
> two undergraduates working for 30 hours/week. I'd really like to push 
> forward recommenders everywhere and wikilens.org so it becomes very 
> cool. For me, recommenders everywhere only works if the features we're 
> excited about get into a widely available and well-known system. For a 
> refresher, see
> 
> http://www.wikilens.org/index.php/RecommendersEverywhere
> http://www.wikilens.org/index.php/WikiLens

I could add to this.

> Moreover, there are certain features we absolutely must have. These 
> include:
> 
> - Working and easy-to-use user/page permissions

my current top goal.

> - Sorting on the PageList widget 

sortby=rating? ok.

> - others will arise (e.g., things in PageList, making categories more 
>   "natively" supported in Phpwiki, etc.)

This is new to me. Can you describe this?
Do you mean dynamic categories? We had some kind of patch for this 
feature some years ago. page : category relation in the database.
Other wiki's tried that also.
We didn't like that. We thought that manual fixes (links at the bottom 
of each page) and backlinks are easier, just the engine should support 
the needed features people are proposing.

> I am happy to work on these things, but I hesitate because if you are 
> also working on them, my proposed changes may not be useful, hence that 
> is wasted work. On the other hand, if you don't believe in them (for the 
> sake of argument, making category pages special), they will never be 
> accepted.

I want to bring out a release today, so I will answer tommorrow.
There are still several known problems, and lot of tests to do.

> Thus, I would be interested in hearing more from you about how you think 
> of the Phpwiki development process. That is, what should I keep in mind 
> to make my work most likely to be accepted by the Phpwiki team? How can 
> I best help out the Phpwiki team, given my interests?
> 
> This sort of thing might include just plain knowing more about you or 
> other Phpwiki developers. Possible examples:
> 
> - How much time do you devote to it?

Currently full time. In the near future about 4 hrs a week. Not as less 
time as in the last two years for sure.

> - How long have you been around?

phpwiki development since my acadwiki, which started with 1.2 and then 
came jeffs 1.3.x tree.
for some early software development see my website.

> - What is the team style?
> - What development processes do you think work well?
> - Where could there be improvement?
> - How would you like to grow the Phpwiki development team so that it can 
>   make faster progress?
> 
> My boss said I should feel free to call long distance to talk about 
> these things, if you are willing. Give me a phone#, propose a time.

I'd rather prefer email or wiki discussion. I worked as teleworker for 
several US companies before and was never convinced in the usefulness of 
phone conversation.

> Some things I've noticed:
> - Phpwiki is downloaded often (~200 times a day).
> - You are the most active developer right now. Most other developers are 
> inactive, a couple (e.g., Joby) seem somewhat active.
> - You seem to be working on many things at once.
> - More documentation would be nice. The Phpwiki Phpwiki has a lot of 
> good stuff, and a lot of what might be old cruft.
> - People are asking for stability.
> - Phpwiki releases have some features which work well, and others which 
> are experimental or non-functional. The difference is not always obvious.
> - People are asking for features.
> - The email list phpwiki-talk is the best place to gather right now
> 
> I would be eager to help where I can. I am not entirely useful, though. 
> For example, unfortunately, I do not know the code or functionality as 
> well as you or other developers, so I cannot take over documentation.

At least you can start if you feel a urgent desire to so. We already 
discussed this. Others can fix wrong things then.

I have to stop now, because I have to prepare a radio show about the 
nature and importance of science, and several misleading paths in the past.
-- 
Reini Urban
http://xarch.tu-graz.ac.at/home/rurban/