Subject: [alpine-devel] some back-end contributions to the wiki

From: Jim Pryor <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:44:33 -0500

I made some back-end contributions to the wiki; that is, a variety of
contributions that aren't themselves content. Others may want to know
about them.

One group of contributions has to do with templates.

1. I tweaked a few of the existing templates, such as {{Cmd}},
{{Draft}}, and {{Obsolete}}. Partly for more visual consistency with
other existing or added templates; and partly to add functionality. The
{{Draft}} and {{Obsolete}} templates now permit an "alternate message".
So {{Draft}} gives a box that says, as before:

    THIS PAGE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS ...
    This page is under construction. Do not follow this document until
    this
    notice is removed.

Whereas {{Draft|Alternate message.}} gives a box that says:

    THIS PAGE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS ...
    This page is under construction. Alternate message.

2. I added a {{Define|term|explanation}} template, that creates a
definition list. This is already achievable using

    ; term : explanation

but the template also adds a <span id="term"> around the block.
(Actually I didn't create this template, it was already in use for the
[[Glossary]] page; I just renamed it.)

3. I added a {{Hint|term|explanation}} template, that displays
explanation in a pop-up when you hover your mouse over term.

4. I added If, Ifeq, Ifn, and Ifz templates, for use when building other
templates. These have some limits, since the ParserFunctions extension
isn't enabled on the Alpine wiki. But they should work well enough.
These were based on code from the MediaWiki manuals.

    {{Ifn|value|result}} works like shell's if [ -n "value" ]; then
    result; fi
    {{Ifz|value|result}} works like shell's if [ -z "value" ]; then
    result; fi
    {{If|value|resultyes|resultno}} works like shell's if [ -n "value"
    ]; then resultyes; else resultno; fi
    {{Ifeq|value|test|resultyes|resultno}} works like shell's if [
    "value" = test ]; then resultyes; else resultno; fi

5. I added a {{Path|/path/to/file}} template to format path elements.
Anyone who cares to restyle this is of course welcome to do so.

6. I created a {{Cat|/path/to/file|contents}} template, that displays
contents in a block-level pre-formatted display somewhat like {{Cmd}}
and the wiki's built in space-indented-line/<pre> functionality. Here is
my understanding of the intended use of each of these:

    (a) {{Cmd|text}} is for text the user is to enter at the
    command-line. (This is a block-level equivalent for the inline html
    element <kbd>, which the wiki does not process.) Wiki markup is
    still honored in text, so you can for instance write {{Cmd|fdisk
    /dev/<var>device</var>}}.

    (b) The wiki's space-indented-line/<pre> functionality is invoked in
    any of the following ways:

    -------
     Every line
     begins with '''a space'''.
    -------

    -------
    <pre>
    Lines aren't
    indented with '''a space.'''
    </pre>
    -------

    -------
     <nowiki>Only first
    line begins with '''a space'''.</nowiki>
    -------

    The last two give equivalent presentation, and in these any wiki and
    html markup is ignored: so '''a  space''' will display all of the
    quotes, instead of making "a space" bold. However html entities
    (&rarr; and so on) are still honored.

    The first gives a similar presentation, but in it the wiki and html
    markup are honored, too. So there '''a space''' will display in
    bold, without the quotes.

    The intended use of all of these elements is to display snippets of
    text from files, or the output of commands. (So its use includes
    being a block-level equivalent for the inline html element <samp>,
    which the wiki does not process.) To display a shell session that
    includes prompts that intermixes user input and command output, you
    should also use these elements rather than {{Cmd}}.

    (c) {{Cat|/path/to/file|contents}} is for displaying whole
    pre-formatted files. Wiki and html markup inside contents aren't
    processed, though html entities still are. There are a few cases
    where characters inside contents have to be escaped; see
    [[Template:Cat]] for details.

The second group of contributions is a single page, at
<http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Alpine_Linux:Site_improvements>. The
intent is to collect ideas for improving the site design of
wiki.alpinelinux.org or www.alpinelinux.org. Others are also invited to
add/edit ideas there. Anyone who's bored and has site priveleges is
invited to implement the ideas. Most of them are trivial to
implement---once a non-trivial design decision is made.

If you prefer such suggestions to go to the Alpine infrastructure or
Alpine documentation sections of the Bugtracker, okay. Sometime when I'm
bored I'll move them there. For now, it was easier to just dump a whole
bunch of things I noticed at once to this single page.

-- 
Jim Pryor
[email-masked]

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From: Natanael Copa <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 23:50:05 +0100

On Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:44:33 -0500

> One group of contributions has to do with templates.

Wow. Yes, cleaning up the templates was needed.

> wiki.alpinelinux.org or www.alpinelinux.org. Others are also invited
> to add/edit ideas there.

Wow, very good!

> Anyone who's bored and has site priveleges is

I'm far from bored :-/ but I changed various things, specially in the
Mediawiki:Sidebar.

Some time ago we had the wiki as the main page. Carlo set up a drupal
site as the "main site" so the wiki could be a community wiki. We never
finished the cleanup after that split.

> Alpine documentation sections of the Bugtracker, okay. Sometime when
> I'm bored I'll move them there. For now, it was easier to just dump a
> whole bunch of things I noticed at once to this single page.

Do whats easiest for you. The wiki page is good. The bugtracker is a
good way to make sure the specific items are followed up as I normally
go through the tickets before every stable release (every 6 month)

Now we need kick someone in the rear part to make those things happen...

-nc

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From: Nathan Angelacos <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2012 07:33:03 -0800

> contributions that aren't themselves content. Others may want to know

Many Thanks!  (Personally, I find your "cheatsheet" page to be really 
helpful, too.)
> bunch of things I noticed at once to this single page.

I'm fine with leaving it where it is; alpine-infra is used (mostly) for 
back-end stuff, like moving servers and backups and such, and if where 
it is now helps improve the site, no need to move it.

Again, thanks!

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