Version 65 of Wiki
Updated 2005-05-30 17:49:53
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". 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 [L1 ] in 2001 and recommends the reader comments on the Amazon page [L2 ] on The Wiki Way for insight on, well, "The Wiki Way".
There is an internal project at Xerox Parc called "Sparrow" [L3 ], 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 [L4 ], but implemented as a sort of learning network, with the "strength" of links dependent on how often [L5 ] they're traversed.
One Wiki book (dead link!) [L6 ] 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 [L7 ] 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[L8 ]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