Updating M204wiki: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:53, 24 February 2014

Overview

While the most important part of a wiki is the content, following a few simple rules in formatting wiki documentation pages can make it easier for people to use the wiki because of the consistent look and feel of each page. In addition, following these rules can make it easier to write the pages, as standard use of wiki and HTML tags makes it possible to convey information in the format of the text rather than having to state it explicitly.

Use of HTML tags and attributes that focus on the semantics of text also has some advantages:

It is easier to remember semantic tags and attributes than remembering the physical display characteristics of a certain kinds of text.
It is easier for someone to edit or customize the look and feel of text based on its semantics if the semantics of the text is explicit in the markup.

In fact, as a general rule of thumb, if you are coding any explicit physical text attributes in your wiki markup, it's probably a sign that you're doing something wrong or that M204wiki needs to expand its list of semantic classes.

For example, if you enter ''Model204'' or <i>Model 204</i>, you're doing something wrong. You should enter <var class="product">Model 204</var>. Even if you're trying to emphasize something, like the "should" in the last sentence, you should use <strong>should</strong> not '''should''' or <b>should</b> though, admittedly, <strong> doesn't convey a lot about the semantics of the enclosed word or words.

Adding, editing, or discussing a page

M204wiki is a collection of named pages to which you are invited to contribute. Once you have an authorized ID, you can add new pages to the wiki collection; you can edit the content of existing pages; and you can discuss the content of existing pages.

Adding a new page

There are multiple ways to add a new page to m204wiki:

Manually composing a page name
This is the typical approach.
Using a link to a wanted page
If there is already a link (colored red) for the page, someone else probably felt such a page was needed but didn't have time to define it.

Simply click this link and you enter the wiki editor, where you add and save the new page content.
One-time User Language generation of new page
This is limited to wiki administrators and explained further in the behind-the-firewall M204 internal wiki (M204int; see "Wiki tips").

For even more techniques, see this MediaWiki page.

Manually composing a page name

Type the page name in the M204wiki search box, and click the Go button. You see the following on the search result:

Create the page pagename on this wiki!

Click pagename (red link) to enter the wiki editor and create that new page.

Note: Choose page names wisely (they are the principal means of search):

Select names that are consistent with other pages in the wiki.
Pay close attention to capitalization. Usually only the initial letter is capitalized.
Page names can be "changed," using the Move tab, but doing so properly then requires a wiki administrator to delete the old page and modify any links to the deleted page.
Some characters (underscore ( _ ), for example) do not display in the page title; for them you can put {{DISPLAYTITLE:correct_name}} at the top of the editor page (as in all $function pages).

When you create the page content, specify at the bottom of the editor page the category to which the page belongs. A category is a collection of similar pages, and a category page contains links to each of its member pages. For example, here is the markup to add a page to the Parameters category:

[[Category:Parameters]]

If an existing category (see the Categories page) is not appropriate, name a new one with some care.

Editing a page

To edit a page, simply click the Edit tab that is usually at the top of each page. The editing page will appear, containing the existing markup. When you have finished making modifications, click the Show preview button to view the effect of your changes without committing them; then click the Save page button to commit your changes.

For information about the conventions for markup of M204wiki pages, use the page you are currently reading, including the See also section.

Handling pages that contain auto-generated content

Some pages contain content that is programmatically generated and meant to be edited only by wiki administrators. Such content is discernible when you view the content within the page editor. Typically you see that the content source is a template page ({{Template:Built_from_code}} markup), and often you see a comment like the following:

The auto-generation is by SOUL operating on information in the Model 204 load module. Many of the wiki's "List of ..." pages are examples of this, for example, List of Arraylist methods.

An alternative to personally updating such content is to copy the page or section's URL, then email it to the most relevant people or simply to M204Support@rocketsoftware.com, including a description of the update you had in mind.

Adding comments to your revisions

Commenting on your revisions to the wiki helps others to find and understand your changes.

There are two ways to enter comments while you are editing a wiki section:

Enter one or more comment lines beginning with <! -- and ending with -->
For example:


(For documentation purposes, the above comment has been made visible by surrounding it with nowiki tags.)
A comment can span several lines or be inserted within a line.

Users will see the comment only when editing the wiki page or section.
Enter a comment in the Summary box at the bottom of the editing pane, directly above the Save page button.
You might find it useful to include the section title in your comment. (Sometimes the title is included by default in the summary and you can append your comments to it.)
Once you save the page, the comment will disappear from the Summary box and be added to the revision history of the page, as shown here:

Renaming a page

Use the page's Move tab to create a new page that contains the old page's content. The old page content gets replaced with the #REDIRECT [[newpagename]] markup which sends to the new page any links to the old page.

Note: In the default M204wiki presentation ("skin" Vector), the Move tab is accessed by the down-arrow icon to the right of the View history tab.

If the old page name is no longer useful, it should be deleted:

Go to the page that contains the actual REDIRECT — a good way is to click the Recent changes link in the sidebar "toolbox," find your Moved page oldName to newName change, and click the oldName link.
From the old page, click the What links here link on the navigation sidebar. Then click each of those pages, and change the links to point to the new page name.
Ask a wiki administrator to delete the old page.

Discussing a page

If you want to inquire or comment about some of a page's content, you can click the Discussion tab at the top of the page. Because such pages are not heavily used, the tab is often colored red, which changes once you explicitly "create" the page, as the page's initial text advises. Often called a talk page because its name contains the prefix Talk:, you can edit a discussion page as you would a normal page, link to it, and view its editing history.

To start a new discussion thread with its own heading on an already-created talk page, click the + or New section tab. For general tips concerning talk pages, see http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Talk_pages.

Headings

The outermost headers on any page should be level two headers so should have two equal signs on either side:

==This is a heading2==

For a subsection of the heading2:

===Here is a heading3===

These headings are included in the page's table of contents at the top of the page (if there are enough sections — usually three — to generate one).

All of the page and section names are case sensitive. Capitalize the first word and any proper nouns, but leave the rest of the words in lowercase.

Don't create links or put HTML tags in headings.

Links

For cross-references (links) to an article/page, your markup can simply be the exact article title enclosed in pairs of left and right brackets. To link to the article entitled "My target page":

[[My target page]]

If you want the text of the link that the viewer sees to be different from the page title, append to the page name a vertical bar (|) followed by the text you want displayed:

[[My target page|My special link text]]

In the wiki page view, the above markup displays as:

My special link text

The link text above will display in red to remind that this page has yet to be created. For more information anout creating a page, see Help:Starting a new page.

For links to a section on a page, where the section is an h2- through h6-level heading, thus automatically indexed by the wiki code, follow the page title as above by #sectionName, where sectionName is the exact heading title. Then append to the section name a vertical bar followed by the text you want displayed, enclosed in double-quotation marks:

[[My target page#My section|"My section"]]

In the wiki page view, the above markup displays as:

"My section"

Using the quotation marks is arbitrary, but it is the style used in this wiki.

For more information about formatting variations of the above types of links as well as other kinds of links, including external links, those to a target outside of the wiki, see Help:Links

Syntax diagrams

One of the most common documentation structures is a syntax diagram. Syntax diagrams show the format of a command, statement, or method invocation. While some of the syntax diagrams are generated from the Model 204 code (all methods, for example), much of the work of indicating syntax must be done manually. And there is no macro language for specifying the key elements of syntax diagrams.

The first rule of syntax diagrams is that they must be contained inside a <p> element with a class of syntax:

<p class="syntax"> ... syntax diagram goes here </p>

There are other rules that must be observed:

All keywords that must be typed literally as in the syntax diagram must start with an uppercase character.
All syntax terms that are not literals should start with lowercase letters.
Camel case should be used for artifical compound word such as, for example, veryImportantParameter. Of course, keywords can also use this kind of captilization but, because keywords must begin with upper case characters, the casing is, strictly speaking, referred to as Pascal case.
Optional words or phrases must be inside of square brackets. These can be nested if, for example, an optional keyword appears inside an optional clause. Note that for Callable methods, the target (including the equal sign) should be inside square brackets. Note also that, strictly speaking, the syntax diagram for functions is not really correct as a function can be used in a context where its result is not assigned to a variable, but the standard syntax diagram shows an assignment to a variable. It's not obvious how we can make the syntax diagram more accurate without losing information or making it needlessly complex.
Similary, methods can apply to variables or the results of expressions. This dichotomy can be expressed by not using the percent sign in the syntax term for the method object (nor for parameters). This "rule" is currently not followed everywhere — some places use the percent sign at the start of syntax terms that might be variables or results of expressions and some don't. For now, the recommendation is that the percent sign be used only where a percent variable is required. Perhaps, some day, this will turn into a rule.
Use the standard Model 204 continuation character, hyphen (-), to continue each line whose syntax is continued on the next line. While more than 90% of the time syntax diagrams will refer to a single-line statement or a command, it's still good discipline to stick with this rule so that multi-line syntax is obvious.

Because syntax diagrams should be inside a <p> element, rather than, say, a <pre> element, wiki markup is allowed inside the block. This means, that you can include a link to a section that provides more detail about a word or phrase. For example, if there is a syntax term in a syntax diagram called eve, and a section called All about eve, a syntax diagram might be coded as follows:

<p class="syntax">object:foo([[All about eve|eve]]) </p>

In current practice, however, a link within syntax is uncommon and the technique is more often used within code examples.

Note that in the above example, the syntax diagram starts on the same line as the <p class="syntax"> tag. This is because starting the syntax diagram on the following line results in an extra, unnecessary blank line at the top of the box that contains the syntax diagram in the output wiki page. There is no known work-around for this.

It is generally a good idea to try to get the terms in a syntax diagram to line up "nicely" if the diagram extends beyond one line. Obviously, "nicely" is a term that leaves a lot of room for interpretation but, since <p class="syntax"> blocks are always displayed in a monospace font, it shouldn't be a daunting task to make words in multiple lines line up for readability. There are also no guidelines for the width of syntax diagram lines, but making lines too long can result in them running off the end of the page or becoming difficult to scan because of the number of characters on a single line.

Examples

Code examples are much like syntax diagrams but they use the code class, like this:

<p class="code">for %x from 1 to %myStringList:Count if %myStringList(%x):subString(1,3) eq ':h2' then printText this is a header: {%myStringlist(%x)} end if end for ... </p>

Notes:

M204wiki practice is to put the first line in the example on the same line as the <p class="code"> tag, and, by default, to start immediately after (no blanks) the closing angle bracket of that tag
If certain characters (like asterisk, period, hyphen) occupy the first position of an example line, they will be interpreted as wiki markup, so you can do one of the following to prevent this:
- Put a blank in position one and the character in position two.
- Specify their equivalent HTML decimal or entity code (for example, for an asterisk, use *)
- Enclose the character in the <nowiki> tag (for example, for an asterisk, use <nowiki>*</nowiki>)

Tables

M204wiki documentation uses tables extensively, and it uses XHTML tags to create the tables. By default, the M204wiki <table> tag and attributes are styled to include background shading and solid borderlines, and most notably to italicize (as well as bold) the content of <th> cells.

For example, the following table is produced by the code shown below the table:

%outString	A variable to receive the string result of the `Unspace` method.
string	The input method object string
`Spaces`	`Spaces` is an optional, name required, parameter that is a string that specifies the set of characters considered to be whitespace. If you specify multiple `Spaces` characters, the first character of the string is the replacement space character.

<table> <tr><th>%outString</th> <td>A variable to receive the string result of the <var>Unspace</var> method.</td></tr> <tr><th>string</th> <td>The input method object string</td></tr> <tr><th><var>Spaces</var></th> <td><var>Spaces</var> is an optional parameter that is a string that specifies the set of characters considered
to be whitespace. <p> If you specify multiple <var>Spaces</var> characters, the first character of the string is the replacement space
character.</p> </td></tr> </table>

Notes about the table example:

As is typical, the <table> tag is used without any qualifying class. If you want to create a table that does not have solid borders, for example, you would code the tag as <table class="noBorder"> to use the M204wiki stylesheet overrides noBorder class which specifies a transparent border.
Each HTML tag is explicitly started and has an explicit end tag.
In this example, the table has no column headings and no preceding caption. This is frequently the case with M204wiki tables.
- To create a heading row, tag the row (<tr>) with the "head" class, and tag each cell in the row with <th>. The "head" class prevents text in such headings from wrapping (probably what you want), and it makes the heading text non-italic. For example:
  <tr class="head"><th>A wordy column-heading title</th><th>Another wordy column-heading title<th></tr>
- To create a table caption, specify a <caption> tag after the <table> tag and before any heading tags. For example:
  <table> <caption>My favorite table></caption> <tr><th>%outString</th> ... </table>
  
  The caption will display in bold text above, and centered with respect to, the table. The default amount of space between the caption and the table varies with browser type.
To divide a cell's content into blank-separated paragraphs, you explicitly use a starting and ending paragraph tag (<p>), as in row 3.

The cells in the non-heading, first column in the table are tagged with <th>, which makes the cell content bold and italic. The following are alternatives to this default for the non-heading, first-column content:

Desired effect	Technique
Some non-italic (but still auto-bold) items	Enclose the non-italic content within `<var>` tags (see `Spaces` in row 3, column 1).
All not auto-italic and not auto-bold (that is, like this table)	Use the `<td>` tag instead of the `<th>` tag, which will remove the automatic italic and bold.
All not auto-italic (but still auto-bold)	Use the `<table class="thJustBold">` tag, and keep the first-column `<th>` tags. Note: Tag heading rows with <tr class="head">.

Notes and warnings

Notes

Note paragraphs call attention to particular information you want to emphasize. Often such a note is a sentence or two, but sometimes it may include an example or additional paragraph(s). For example:

Note: Only a declared Recordset object variable may be the target of such a Find statement: that is, a Recordset member invocation is not allowed to be the target.

The markup for this indented note uses the <p class="note"> tag and an explicitly bolded Note::

<p class="note"><b>Note:</b> Only a declared <var>Recordset</var> object variable may be the target of such a Find statement: that is, a <var>Recordset</var> member invocation is not allowed to be the target. </p>

If a note extends beyond a single paragraph or includes an example or list, however, you must use a <blockquote class="note"> tag (that is, not <p class="note">) to enclose the entire note. Here is an example:

Note: As shown earlier, the Recordset object declaration specifies the file or group context to which the Find statements apply. The In File and In Group clauses in the statements above must agree with their corresponding object declarations. For an example where an In Group clause is more meaningful, see "Selecting group members". If there is no In File or In Group clause, there must be a default file context.

Here is the markup:

<blockquote class="note"><b>Note:</b> As shown earlier, the <var>Recordset</var> object declaration specifies the file or group context to which the Find statements apply. The <var>In File</var> and <var>In Group</var> clauses in the statements above <b>must</b> agree with their corresponding object declarations. For an example where an <var>In Group</var> clause is more meaningful, see [[Recordset class#Selecting group members|"Selecting group members"]]. <p> If there is no <var>In File</var> or <var>In Group</var> clause, there must be a default file context.</p> </blockquote>

For messages that deserve greater emphasis than a Note but do not concern a risk of losing data or data integrity, use a Note but also use italics or boldface for part or all of the message text.

Warnings

If you need to provide a note that has greater urgency, say to warn users about an operation's potential serious consequences to their system or data, use a paragraph with a warn class, and use the prefix Attention:. Here is example markup:

<p class="warn"><b>Attention: To ensure file integrity, it is strongly recommended that you never reset the FISTAT (file status) parameter when it is set to the file-physically-inconsistent flag until just before you reorganize the file. However, you must reset FISTAT before you reorganize a physically inconsistent file. </p>

The above warning displays with top and bottom horizontal bars:

Attention: To ensure file integrity, it is strongly recommended that you never reset the FISTAT (file status) parameter when it is set to the file-physically-inconsistent flag until just before you reorganize the file. However, you must reset FISTAT before you reorganize a physically inconsistent file.

As with Note messages:

Warnings longer than a single paragraph require <blockquote="warn"> rather than <p="warn">.
To provide greater emphasis to Attention messages that deserve it, use italics or boldface for part or all of the message text.

Categories and Lists

Sirius has avoided the use of third-party add-on modules to MediaWiki in order to make it easy for sites to take local copies of M204wiki material without having to validate and install extra software.

Unfortunately, that leaves out a few useful features, like Dynamic Page Lists (DPL) which make up for some of the shortcomings of the default MediaWiki "Category" technology. Our compromise has been to use both MediaWiki categories and to create hand-built 'list' pages, buttressed by by some User Language consistency checks.

The standard MediaWiki category page is less informative, but updates itself (nearly) automatically. The hand-built list is at risk of being out of date, but it is also more useful as a quick cheat sheet for a set of related methods or functions.

For some category/list sets, such as the big table on "List of $functions" and the tables on the "$Function set" on the top of that page, we have some User Language (here, FUNSCHECK.WIKI) which we should run regularly to ensure all is well.

Other cases may not yet have had the User Language built but should be straightforward, for example, the List of JANUS WEB subcommands and the JANUS WEB subcommands category page.

Some will be harder, such as the hand-built "List of Fast/Unload $functions", because there is no category for it specifically. It is all of the $function entries in the Fast/Unload User Language Interface, and once we convert that page to a hand-built list (with its *CHECK.WIKI!) then the Fast/Unload $function list should be checkable.

PDFs of the contents of Category pages

Most Category pages have a link to create a PDF file that contains all the categories on the page. That PDF will also include any Subcategory entries on the page if the MediaWiki link that placed the subcategory items onto the Category:Commands page is appropriately edited on the "home Category page" of those subcategories. This is also true for the sidebar link "PDF of this page."

For example, the "Operator commands" subcategory on the "Category:Commands" page is ordinarily the result of a [[Category:Commands]] tag on the "Operator commands" page source. If that markup is changed to [[Category:Commands| Operator commands]] (note space before "Operator"), the "Operator commands" subcategory on the "Category:Commands" page will display as before and in the same position except without a bold "O" heading for items that begin with the letter "O". If the other subcategories on the "Category:Commands" page are similarly edited, PDFs of the "Category:Commands" page will include the subcategories.

Graphics and PDFs

Model 204 documentation on M204wiki contains few graphics (images). For information about using graphics on an M204wiki page, see Help:Images. For an M204wiki example, see Using CENTSPAN.

To locate a .pdf file that has been uploaded to M204wiki, you can search for File:filename, where filename is the full name of the PDF file. Or you can specify the URL http://m204wiki.rocketsoftware.com/index.php/File:filename. Both methods will bring you to the "home page" of the file, from which you can invoke the PDF.

From the PDF's home page, you can also hover your mouse over the link to the PDF, which will reveal the URL of the file. You can then use that URL to code links to directly invoke the PDF without having first to go to its home page.

Section numbering

By default, the sections in the table of contents at the top of most pages is automatically numbered. The section headings themselves in the actual page content are not numbered by default, but you can override this default by changing your user preferences:

At the top of any page, select the my preferences link.
On the Preferences page, select the Appearance tab, then in the Advanced options section, select the Auto-number headings checkbox.

@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 </ul>
-For even more techniques, see [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Starting_a_new_page#From_the_search_page this MediaWiki page].
+For even more techniques, see [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Starting_a_new_page this MediaWiki page].
 ====Manually composing a page name====