DOSC TWiki snapshot as of mid-2005

Top

RobinsonTryonHomework


homework -- it would be neat to organize it on a wiki like this, although the one thing that would be nice would be a separation on a per-user basis like the different webs,

i.e. I would have a top-level namespace cut out for me in the database structure of the overarching wiki, and I could name my pages X, Y, and Z. Other people could also name pages X, Y, and Z (for themselves), and could refer to another person's page X and Y by using OtherPersonsName?.X, OtherPersonsName?.Y to access those elements.

Then, we'd have a global namespace that would be like a single person (a single web) that would be for general stuff for everyone.

e.g. I have my personal page about Jabber, and so does Sam, so we have two pages:

Robinson.Jabber, Sam.Jabber.

of course, Sam and I can refer to our own pages by just using 'Jabber' (this is just like namespaces in programming languages).

Now if we also include a global page about Jabber, then that would look like:

Global.Jabber

What would be nice is that if I don't have a personal page defined for 'Jabber', but there is a global page, then if I made a link about 'Jabber', then that link would point to the global page (clearly marking it as a global page so I don't get confused about the namespace would be useful).

Actually, it would be neat to have some configuration going on at the top of each page. This feature could have visibility turned on/off, so that the wiki could be used by people without much experience (if we configured it for them).

The configuration would set up the default namespace; either we could have a global hierarchy of namespaces (so that each person could just use the global setup), or individuals could have the option of tweaking it.

This would be really nice so that someone writing an FAQ on, say, using computers in sudikoff could use a namespace for the Kiewit Labs, parented by a namespace for Kiewit/the CS Dept., parented by a generic Dartmouth namespace.

If a bunch of information is created in a child namespace, but then grows and is modified so that it becomes relevant for all members of a parent namespace, then a method of moving the group of information "up" a level would be very useful.

Instead of using the programming paradigm where you move up the tree structure of namespaces until you find a variable/function/etc... that matches the string you entered, it would be neat to show all of the pages all the way up the tree.

For example, imagine the Kiewit Lab Web having an entry about Netscape 4.0, then the Generic Dartmouth Computing Pages having an entry about Netscape 4.0 as well. (with the Computing Pages being some kind of parent of/having a relation to the Kiewit Lab pages)

The Dartmouth Computing pages might give information about how to use Netscape 4.0, or might say that you should use Netscape 6 instead or whatnot...

But for those people who took cs18 with me, when we were using Noodlle and "Dylan" (which wasn't dylan), it was important to note that InternetExplorer? crashed when running the Noodlle java tool, and NetscapeCommunicator? v4.0 also crashed, necessitating us some ancient version of Netscape like 3.x (IIRC).

Thus if we tried to look up Netscape or Netscape v4.0 from the Kiewit Lab namespace, we'd see:

---- Local (Kiewit Lab) ------------

For cs18: don't use MS IE or Netscape > 3.x to run the java applet for 'Noodlle', use Netscape 3.4

---- General Computing Documentation for Dartmouth -----------

- the use of Netscape 4.0 is discouraged. Try Netscape 6 or higher...

- for info on using Netscape, see ......

- to download, click here

---------------------------------------

.. or something like that.

Darn. I've massively strayed from my original topic which was to work on homework. Okay, no more procrastination (even if it is very interesting and might be a part of a job in the future.. :)



RobinsonTryon - 04 Nov 2002