Version 59 of Wiki
Updated 2005-05-26 14:16:52
This page probably gives the quickest introduction to it all:
Wiki Wiki is the Hawai'ian term for "quick". Ward Cunningham is the one who coined the phrase of "Wiki Wiki Webs"[L1 ] The idea is that you edit pages in normal text mode, with a simple way to add new pages and hyperlinks between them.
It all works via CGI on a web server, so anyone with a web browser anywhere in the world can browse, follow links, and edit these pages.
I am thinking of deciding whether the try out this wiki or the public ones? For example, can you name the various differences between this wiki and the very popular http://c2.com , or http://wikiserver.has.it or http://lambda.vze.com ?
For a few links to Wiki stuff, look at http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiWeb . A list of implementations of Wiki webs, including such important ones as MoinMoin and ZWiki, is at http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiClones .
CL authored an introduction to Wikis [L2 ] in 2001 and recommends the reader comments on the Amazon page [L3 ] on The Wiki Way for insight on, well, "The Wiki Way".
There is an internal project at Xerox Parc called "Sparrow" [L4 ], which adds a fascinating new dimension to Wiki, by allowing users to edit portions of a standard HTML page:
SlashDot has had a similar concept for some time with Everything [L5 ], but implemented as a sort of learning network, with the "strength" of links dependent on how often [L6 ] they're traversed.
One Wiki book (dead link!) [L7 ] is currently available(?, because of the dead link). It's a good one. [Explain the instances exemplified; attention (not) given Tcl; online (un)availability.]
"Wiki" can be understood in at least four senses:
- The architecture and user interface Ward first defined. Once you've learned this as a Wiki user, you know it (like riding a bicycle) and you can easily accomodate minor extant variations.
- A particular application OR toolkit which implements one or several Wikis. The first Wiki was implemented in Perl. There are now multiple Perl Wikis, a Python Wiki, a Tcl Wiki, and so on.
- An instance of a collaborative document collection implemented with a particular Wiki toolkit. The Wiki you're reading now is implemented in Tcl, and also happens to have Tcl as its subject.
- ...
Wikipedia [L8 ] is an ambitious attempt to collect much of the world's wisdom in a Wiki. RS has added needed details from the Tcl scene to http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Tcl - check it out, make it better. (Of course, this is still the real Wiki, but some visibility in a highly-frequented general Wiki can't hurt either...)
rdt Great work (as usuall), however; Under 'Symbols with a special meaning', I would have said: '# comment (only as the first word of a command)'.
The Wiki culture and practice reminds me of Plato Notes files [L9 ], although the mechanisms are much different. escargo 11/11/2002
See also TickleWiki.
Incidentally, if you need help explaining Wiki to someone on the management side, "Wiki goes to work" [L10 ] and its precursors might serve you.
Several independent Wikis are likely to interest readers of this one, including the