> On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:11:31 -0800, Michael <mogmios@mlug.missouri.edu> wrote:
> > Is there any good reason not to make the left hand menus a wiki page
> > that can be edited with the contents shown where that left hand menu
> > currently is located on every page?
As far as I know, the only good reason is that nobody has yet taken on
the task of coding this, as it would probably require some quite
complex code to make the skins still look and work the same, but with
this degree of flexibility.
Note that when version 1.4 is released, a slightly simpler mechanism
will be available for setting the content of the sidebar from the
configuration files (i.e. it will be configurable by anyone with full
access to the server without having to modify the actual code).
On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 12:10:29 -0600, Kiss All <kissall@gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't know the reason either. Maybe they are busy with some "more
> important" things instead.
Yes, that's one way of putting it. But it's important to keep in mind
who "they" are; as is being discussed on another mailing list right
now[1], there are currently *very few* developers working on
MediaWiki; none of them are paid, none of them do this "full time".
Like Wikipedia itself, the software is developed based on people being
interested enough to put the effort into a particular thing.
So "they" may just feel too busy with the rest of their lives to
embark on that feature, for all I know; or maybe most of "them" aren't
sure how it would be implementable, and so get on with something which
they feel they have a better chance of achieving instead.
> I almost feel somewhat frustrated when getting no results for both my
> feature-requests or bug-reports.
There is an often repeated saying in Open Source projects: "why don't
you code it yourself then?" Now, obviously, not everyone *can* code it
themselves, so it's not a great thing to say to strangers, but the
point is that a feature or bug-fix will only get written *if someone
decides to write it*. The fact that a bug report has been open a long
time, or lots of people have said they really really want it, doesn't
actually get the software changed.
Not that filing bug reports is something to be discouraged, certainly
not; but currently, MediaWiki seems to have more people filing bugs
than people fixing them. To an extent, I'm even guilty of this myself,
although I now know enough about the code that I can at least help
consider *how* a feature could be implemented, and hopefully therefore
make the job of the next person slightly easier...
Refs:
[1] search for "PHP" on
http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2004-November/ --
Rowan Collins BSc
[IMSoP]