Re: Introduction / MSDN-js

Hello Doug,

Doug wrote:
> So, if you're willing to take charge of making a conversion script, and
> iterating with it to refine the output, that would be most welcome!

I'll be happy to take charge and work this to completion.  To begin, I
need feedback on two decision points.

===== Decision 1

Doug wrote:
> I like the structure that MDN used ..., under these topic clusters:
> * Objects
> * Constants
> * Properties
>...[clip]...
> So, it could look like:
>  http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/javascript
>  →/javascript/objects/
>  →→/javascript/objects/Date
>...[clip]...

Note that at this moment, two sets of existing pages exist in
different root locations:

[1] http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/concepts/programming/javascript

[2] http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/javascript

For example, "objects" are subpages of both of the above with content in them.

Rather than overwriting existing pages with the output of this
conversion, one idea is
to create a third set separate from the above two.  After conversion
is complete and the
third set is installed, we then begin a new effort to manually edit
individual pages
from all three sets of locations so as to merge it into the final
form, with an eye on
deleting merged pages as you go.

An alternative is move [1] and [2] out of the way to new locations,
slap the converted
pages in the right place, then begin a new effort to merge the new
locations of [1] and
[2] into it.

Even with a test wiki:

[3] http://docs.webplatform.org/test/Main_Page

The point remains the same.  You have to deal with merging and that's manual.

===== Decision 2

Since the source content exists at github:

[4] https://github.com/webplatform/msdn-js

And existing tools exist at github:

[5] https://github.com/webplatform/webplatform-tools

I can eventually get the one-time-effort scripts I'm writing there.

But for the mean time I need a testbed where I turn HTML into
MediaWiki lots of times,
where I do mass adds repeatedly in a development loop to show the work
in progress and get feedback from early glances.

This would avoid 400 automated page updates multiple times a day, which is spam
in anyone's book.

So I'm thinking of creating my own personal area on throwaway
Mediawiki instance using
my own hosting solution, with no Mediawiki semantic extensions, just a
vanilla instance.
I can point people to it to show unfit early versions that get better
over time, until
it's deemed ready.  Then I push to the test wiki where the environment
is more accurate
to get the final nod.  Then I push the final version and we're done.

Received on Tuesday, 30 April 2013 01:33:35 UTC