[ANN] BlueCloth 0.0.2 (beta)

M

Michael Granger

Hi,

Hot on the heels of the initial release, I'd like to announce the
second release of BlueCloth, the odd half-brother to Why's RedCloth.
Let's just hope he's not one of those annoying younger brothers who
tries to tag along after his older sibling to all the cool college
parties, laughing inappropriately at inside jokes and telling
embarrassing stories about him in front of the girls.

This release adds further RedCloth compatibility, integrates some great
filtery code contributed by Florian Gross, and, by popular demand, is
distributed in the RubyGem format in addition to the other less-sparkly
ones.

Project page: http://bluecloth.rubyforge.org/
Download: http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=230&release_id=407

If there aren't any major bugs found or compelling interface changes
proposed in the next few weeks, this will become the 1.0 release.

Thanks to all of you that have offered your suggestions and code. I
have a local installation of Instiki using BlueCloth now, but I'm still
working on a graceful way of allowing the user to choose which they
prefer. I hope to do some real work on it this weekend, and perhaps
will be able to submit something to David very soon.

Have a good weekend,
 
D

David Heinemeier Hansson

Thanks to all of you that have offered your suggestions and code. I
have a local installation of Instiki using BlueCloth now, but I'm
still working on a graceful way of allowing the user to choose which
they prefer. I hope to do some real work on it this weekend, and
perhaps will be able to submit something to David very soon.

Sounds awesome. Do have a look at the RDoc patch also discussed on this
list. Perhaps you could work with that? Or improve upon it. I'd love to
be able to have both RDoc and BlueCloth support in 0.7.

Speaking of 0.7, is there any requests from the audience? Besides some
much needed polish in a few needy spots, what would people like to see
otherwise?
 
M

Mauricio Fernández

Sounds awesome. Do have a look at the RDoc patch also discussed on this
list. Perhaps you could work with that? Or improve upon it. I'd love to
be able to have both RDoc and BlueCloth support in 0.7.

In my patch the formatting engine is specified in the command line, and
then something like

if Object.const_defined?("OPTIONS") && OPTIONS[:markup] == :rdoc

is used. A metadata-based system would be better but it's more work too ;)

--
Running Debian GNU/Linux Sid (unstable)
batsman dot geo at yahoo dot com

Even more amazing was the realization that God has Internet access. I
wonder if He has a full newsfeed?
-- Matt Welsh
 
G

Gavin Sinclair

Sounds awesome. Do have a look at the RDoc patch also discussed on this
list. Perhaps you could work with that? Or improve upon it. I'd love to
be able to have both RDoc and BlueCloth support in 0.7.
Speaking of 0.7, is there any requests from the audience? Besides some
much needed polish in a few needy spots, what would people like to see
otherwise?

A list, on each page, of all the pages that link to it.

A list, on each page, of all the pages that are "similar" (for some
value of "similar"). E.g. two pages are similar if they have x%
coincidence of y% of the words on the page, or something. This
obviously requires some thought and experimentation, but it seems like
a cool thing to do.

Keywords. Give each page arbitrary keywords to enable "browsing by
keyword". When you add a keyword to a page, make it selectable from a
drop-down list of all existing keywords to make it easier. Of course
new ones can be added.

Templates. Createable and selectable via drop-downs. Say I want to
write man pages (shyeah, right!), then I might create a template
containing the headings "Name", "Synopsis", "Description", "Features",
etc.

A quick search feature (I doubt this is possible in a web app),
whereby *as you are entering* the search term, you are given a visual
cue as to how many nodes match it so far. This is a Info Select's
only killer feature.

Integration with a blogger, enabling the blog to link to the
WikiSpace and the WikiSpace to display references from the blog, just
like (I requested) it shows references from other WikiPages.

Some way of creating/editing a node in RTF on your own machine and
uploading it to the Wiki.

There's my dream list!

Cheers,
Gavin
 
F

Florian Gross

Gavin Sinclair wrote:

Nice requests. I just couldn't resist commenting on some of them. :)
A list, on each page, of all the pages that link to it.

Already available AFAIK.
Keywords. Give each page arbitrary keywords to enable "browsing by
keyword". When you add a keyword to a page, make it selectable from a
drop-down list of all existing keywords to make it easier. Of course
new ones can be added.

This is usually done by just adding links to Category pages on other
Wikis. (You'll get the "pages that link to this category page" list.)
A quick search feature (I doubt this is possible in a web app),
whereby *as you are entering* the search term, you are given a visual
cue as to how many nodes match it so far. This is a Info Select's
only killer feature.

Hm, this would be more or less possible with JavaScript and an embedded
but I doubt that it would be responsive enough. (It will have said:
Cheers,
Gavin

Regards,
Florian Gross
 
G

Gavin Sinclair

Gavin Sinclair wrote:
Nice requests. I just couldn't resist commenting on some of them. :)
Already available AFAIK.

Ah good. I'm a bit behind the curve.

This is usually done by just adding links to Category pages on other
Wikis. (You'll get the "pages that link to this category page" list.)

Yeah, but I think this should become a first-class feature.

Hm, this would be more or less possible with JavaScript and an embedded
<iframe>, but I doubt that it would be responsive enough. (It will have
to fetch a new page after every 2-3 new letters or so.)

Oh well, more possible than I thought, but yeah -- responsiveness is
king.

Gavin
 
G

gabriele renzi

il Sat, 17 Apr 2004 09:46:23 +0900, Gavin Sinclair
A list, on each page, of all the pages that are "similar" (for some
value of "similar"). E.g. two pages are similar if they have x%
coincidence of y% of the words on the page, or something. This
obviously requires some thought and experimentation, but it seems like
a cool thing to do.

I believe it would be better to just have a 'LikePages' link that
bring you to a page with the results from the like-search.
IIRC the likesearch from Portland Pattern Repository does this
searching names that have one of the WikiWord matching (i.e.
IntikiHome ~ InstikiRulez ~ RubyRulez ).
Btw, the neat fuzzy matching alghoritm on rubyforge would be cool too
:)
 
I

Ian Macdonald

Hot on the heels of the initial release, I'd like to announce the
second release of BlueCloth, the odd half-brother to Why's RedCloth.
Let's just hope he's not one of those annoying younger brothers who
tries to tag along after his older sibling to all the cool college
parties, laughing inappropriately at inside jokes and telling
embarrassing stories about him in front of the girls.

The README makes reference to a sample program in the bin directory,
called bluecloth. However, the tar archive contains neither the file nor
the directory.

Ian
--
Ian Macdonald | The aim of a joke is not to degrade the
System Administrator | human being but to remind him that he is
(e-mail address removed) | already degraded. -- George Orwell
http://www.caliban.org |
|
 
A

Anders Engström

* David Heinemeier Hansson said:
Sounds awesome. Do have a look at the RDoc patch also discussed on this
list. Perhaps you could work with that? Or improve upon it. I'd love to
be able to have both RDoc and BlueCloth support in 0.7.

Speaking of 0.7, is there any requests from the audience? Besides some
much needed polish in a few needy spots, what would people like to see
otherwise?

Great work, David.

One feature I'd appreciate is a page listing all "orphaned" pages (pages
that no other page links to), and a page with all "undefined" pages
(wiki-links that do not yet have a corresponding wiki-page). These pages
are really nice to have when you're "gardening" your wiki :)

Also - it would be nice to be able to use some kind of plugin system.
That way the user can extend the wiki in his/hers own way.

//Anders

--
/**
* Anders Engström, (e-mail address removed)
* -------------------------------------
* Your mind is like an umbrella.
* It doesn't work unless you open it.
* /Frank Zappa
*/
 
D

Dick Davies

* David Heinemeier Hansson said:
Speaking of 0.7, is there any requests from the audience? Besides some
much needed polish in a few needy spots, what would people like to see
otherwise?

It's not a wiki feature so much, but is there a reason you don't use the
rubygem format? I noticed you ship your own versions of redcloth and madeleine,
both of those have gems now so they could automatically be installed on demand
as part of the instiki install. BlueCloth has one too, as of last week, I think.

I'm looking to move a smallish usemod wiki over in the next month or so, but
didn't you say the format broke around 0.5.0? I don't mind doing The Great Paste
once, but every week or two (I like 'release often') would be annoying.

So can I add backwards compatibility (or better yet and upgrade utility) to the wishlist.

And finally a user prefs page, but that's just me being a usemod weenie.


Thanks a lot for Instiki, by the way. I've been looking for a good ruby wiki that was
easy to setup and used Textile since last year, this hits the nail on the head.

Cheers!
 
D

David Heinemeier Hansson

It's not a wiki feature so much, but is there a reason you don't use
the
rubygem format? I noticed you ship your own versions of redcloth and
madeleine,
both of those have gems now so they could automatically be installed
on demand
as part of the instiki install. BlueCloth has one too, as of last
week, I think.

I remember reading that it was still undecided whether gems would make
sense for applications or whether they should just be for libraries. Is
the verdict in on this yet? If gems are suitable for applications,
where should I storage the Madeleine databases and zip dumps? I'd
rather not hide that away in /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/instiki
-- or similar. Suggestions?
I'm looking to move a smallish usemod wiki over in the next month or
so, but
didn't you say the format broke around 0.5.0? I don't mind doing The
Great Paste
once, but every week or two (I like 'release often') would be annoying.

Out of six releases, the format broke once. And the only reason I
didn't do a converter was because nobody expressed an interest (and I
didn't need one yet). Any future format breaks will be accompaigned
with a converter.
And finally a user prefs page, but that's just me being a usemod
weenie.

For now, I think I like the idea of no preferences to keep it simple.
Perhaps that's just because I can't really see the use in many of the
options available for UseMod.

http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?action=editprefs
Thanks a lot for Instiki, by the way. I've been looking for a good
ruby wiki that was
easy to setup and used Textile since last year, this hits the nail on
the head.

Thank you all. The immense interest has certainly increased my
motivation for putting out new versions faster.
 
G

Gavin Sinclair

I remember reading that it was still undecided whether gems would make
sense for applications or whether they should just be for libraries. Is
the verdict in on this yet? If gems are suitable for applications,
where should I storage the Madeleine databases and zip dumps? I'd
rather not hide that away in
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/instiki
-- or similar. Suggestions?

RubyGems 0.3 won't be much longer, in which applications are certainly
possible. The gem lists all the files that are to become
applications, and creates wrappers for them in /usr/local/bin or
whereever (I'm sure it works on Windows too!). It's a sight to
behold.

As for storing the program data, I don't know. Where is it stored at
the moment?

Gavin
 
C

Chad Fowler

On Monday, April 19, 2004, 2:14:29 AM, David wrote:
RubyGems 0.3 won't be much longer, in which applications are certainly
possible. The gem lists all the files that are to become
applications, and creates wrappers for them in /usr/local/bin or
whereever (I'm sure it works on Windows too!). It's a sight to
behold.

As for storing the program data, I don't know. Where is it stored at
the moment?

Right now, you're just writing the madeleine files under the current
working directory, right? I would say this makes sense even if you've
got an installed application (e.g. an application gem). So, hopefully
it would just work the same as a gem or as a standalone program.

Chad
 
T

Torsten Rueger

David said:
Speaking of 0.7, is there any requests from the audience? Besides some
much needed polish in a few needy spots, what would people like to see
otherwise?

I just downloaded and had a look on the weekand. Looks very nice.

But since you ask, I find a diff feature very practical, so I can see
what people (also me) have changed. Also a last edit date (possibly
version) is great.

Thanks

Torsten
 
D

Dick Davies

* David Heinemeier Hansson <[email protected]> [0414 17:14]:

Out of six releases, the format broke once. And the only reason I
didn't do a converter was because nobody expressed an interest (and I
didn't need one yet). Any future format breaks will be accompaigned
with a converter.

Great, thanks. For some reason I had it in my head that was going to be
a problem for a while.

For now, I think I like the idea of no preferences to keep it simple.
Perhaps that's just because I can't really see the use in many of the
options available for UseMod.

http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?action=editprefs

The only feature I really use is the username part, so you can see who
edited a page. That'd be the only thing worth porting IMO.
 
D

David Heinemeier Hansson

The only feature I really use is the username part, so you can see who
edited a page. That'd be the only thing worth porting IMO.

Instiki already has that. The cookie is currently only kept for the
session, but I'm going to change that for the next version. Each
revision of a page is stamped with this author name (which defaults to
AnonymousCoward to encourage changing).
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads


Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
473,744
Messages
2,569,482
Members
44,901
Latest member
Noble71S45

Latest Threads

Top