Mailing List Archive

new wiki -- Symbolproject.org
Im starting a new wiki called symbolproject.org -- i'm
wondering if it might be better just to go with
installing the unstable branch just to try it out,
since we're just getting started.

I understand that some people have been waiting months
to get their code up live on wikipedia. Im thinking
that they could get it going right away on
symbolproject.org, and the different project goal
might be interesting to people who want to take a
break from wikipedia-specific development. The
question i have i guess, is to fork mediawiki in
sourceforge cvs or not --maybe this could help
mediawiki development, i dont know.

-Stephen Cooney


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Re: new wiki -- Symbolproject.org [ In reply to ]
On Nov 19, 2003, at 17:12, Steve Cooney wrote:
> Im starting a new wiki called symbolproject.org -- i'm
> wondering if it might be better just to go with
> installing the unstable branch just to try it out,
> since we're just getting started.

We'll be installing the completed merge of the dev branch on live
Wikipedia this weekend. It's "in theory" largely stable at this point;
please feel free to use it and report any problems!

> I understand that some people have been waiting months
> to get their code up live on wikipedia. Im thinking
> that they could get it going right away on
> symbolproject.org, and the different project goal
> might be interesting to people who want to take a
> break from wikipedia-specific development. The
> question i have i guess, is to fork mediawiki in
> sourceforge cvs or not --maybe this could help
> mediawiki development, i dont know.

Is there any code in particular you have in mind?

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
Re: new wiki -- Symbolproject.org [ In reply to ]
--- Brion Vibber <brion@pobox.com> wrote:
> On Nov 19, 2003, at 19:23, Steve Cooney wrote:
> > But Im curious, for SP (or any other MW site) to
> use
> > MW, some specialized modules will have to be made,
> > some of which may not be useful to WP, but may be
> > useful for something else.
> >
> > Should imminently enthustastic and abundant SP
> > developers simply join MW, and get their works
> lost in
> > the shuffle, or can there be project forks in CVS
> > under the MW (still "Wikipedia" on sForge --they
> dont
> > do account transfers, eh?) that are modestly
> > independent and somewhat autonomous?
>
> We could add additional branches in CVS, but they
> would likely be much
> harder to maintain that way instead of just putting
> them right in the
> main dev branch, where people will test them and
> they have half a
> chance of getting maintained and going in the main
> stable distribution.
>
> Useful general-purpose stuff like SVG support and
> annotations should
> certainly go in the main code (and good features
> should also be easy to
> disable where not needed!)
>
> -- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)

Ok --but would it be better for MediaWiki if it had
some emphasis on its ability to branch out into
different, customized applications? By this, I mean
that, just as some have pointed out, MediaWiki aspires
to be more than just Wikipedia, and as such, people
will want use-specific packages, perhaps including
cut-down lite wiki versions (but with the benefit of
some newer bells and whistles). I know the whole thing
is actually pretty tiny anyway, though.

Just curious, because it seems to me that MediaWiki
wants to be more of an umbrella for other
non-Wikimedia wikis, and not just a one-trunk deal.
The difference is perceptual, but may effect how
MediaWiki recieves attention from freelancers, who
just want to find free sockets and new directions they
can plug themselves into.

Sincerely,
Stephen Cooney


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Re: new wiki -- Symbolproject.org [ In reply to ]
On Nov 20, 2003, at 01:13, Steve Cooney wrote:
> Ok --but would it be better for MediaWiki if it had
> some emphasis on its ability to branch out into
> different, customized applications? By this, I mean
> that, just as some have pointed out, MediaWiki aspires
> to be more than just Wikipedia, and as such, people
> will want use-specific packages, perhaps including
> cut-down lite wiki versions (but with the benefit of
> some newer bells and whistles). I know the whole thing
> is actually pretty tiny anyway, though.

We certainly do want to make the code more generalized and modular;
even on the Wikimedia servers we're running other projects than just
Wikipedia: Wiktionary, Wikibooks, etc have their own needs and it's in
everyone's interest to keep the main code base easy to work with, easy
to extend, and easy to upgrade without breaking custom changes.

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)