[ANN] Instiki 0.3.0: Before the Storm

  • Thread starter David Heinemeier Hansson
  • Start date
D

David Heinemeier Hansson

What's new in Instiki 0.3.0?
============================

Instiki have moved off the backburner and into full-on development as
its been chosen for playing a part in my bachelor's project on Social
Software. This release is entitled "Before the Storm" as it's mainly
about polish before I start adding features that'll require data
migration. Upgrading to 0.3.0 is a no-brainer. Just move your wikis
from storage/ over from the old installation and all should be fine.

The most apparent change is that the user interface has been polished
for all pages. This includes much requested Textile help on the edit
page. But there's also locking, so you won't accidently start editing a
page someone else is already working on.

Full change list:

* Brought all files into common style (including Textile help on the
edit page)
* Added page locking (if someone already is editing a page there's a
warning)
* Added daemon abilities on Unix (keep Instiki running after you close
the terminal)
* Made port 2500 the default port, so Instiki can be launched by
dobbelt-click
* Added Textile cache to speed-up rendering of large pages
* Made WikiWords look like "Wiki Words"
* Updated RedCloth to 2.0.4

The next release will include a good share of the following stories:

* Each revision is stored on the page object and it's possible to
navigate back through the history with Previous / Next.
* Informal signatures as wiki words (DavidHeinemeierHansson) that are
stored in the cookie and attached to each revision.
* Simple, optional password protection stored in the cookie.
* Export to HTML with all control links stripped. All files named after
their wikinames in one big directory, example: GetThisStarted.html.
HomePage becomes index.html.
* Multiple wiki spaces running on the same port.
* Two RSS feeds for recent changes. "Headlines" with just headlines,
author, and date. "Full content" that also include the entire page
content.


What is Instiki?
================

Admitted, it's Yet Another Wiki Clone[1], but with a strong focus
on simplicity of installation and running:

Step 1. Download
Step 2. Run "instiki.rb 2505"
Step 3. *Chuckle*... "There's no step three!" (TM)

You're now running a perfectly suitable wiki on port 2505
that'll present you with a textarea for the home page on entering.

Instiki lowers the barriers of interest for when you might consider
using a wiki. It's so simple to get running that you'll find yourself
using it for anything -- taking notes, brainstorming, organizing a
gathering.

Instiki reserves a separate WikiSpace for each port number, so
you can run more than one wiki by keeping them on separate ports.
It also means that you can't access the same wiki on another port
than the one you started it on (unless you move the directory in
storage).

Features:
* Regular expression search: Find deep stuff really fast
* Reference tracker: Which other pages are pointing to the current?
* Speed: Using Madelein for persistence (all pages are in memory)
* Textile formatting[2]: By ways of RedCloth
* Embedded webserver: Through WEBrick

Missing:
* Revision control
* Access control (there's not even an explicit user concept)
* File attachments

History:
* 0.3.0: Brought all files into common style (including Textile help on
the edit page)
Added page locking (if someone already is editing a page
there's a warning)
Added daemon abilities on Unix (keep Instiki running after you
close the terminal)
Made port 2500 the default port, so Instiki can be launched by
dobbelt-click
Added Textile cache to speed-up rendering of large pages
Updated RedCloth to 2.0.4
Made WikiWords look like "Wiki Words"
* 0.2.5: Upgraded to RedCloth 2.0.2 and Madeleine 0.6.1, which means the
Windows problems are gone. Also fixed a problem with wikiwords
that used part of other wikiwords.
* 0.2.0: First public release

Download latest from:
<a
href="http://rubyforge.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=186">http://
rubyforge.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=186</a>

License is the same as Ruby's

[1] <a
href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiClones">http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?
WikiWikiClones</a>
[2] Textile Syntax: <a
href="http://www.textism.com/tools/textile/">http://www.textism.com/
tools/textile/</a>
 
G

Guillaume Marcais

What about a 'preview' button? How hard would it be to add?

Guillaume.

Le 9 avr. 04, à 09:22, David Heinemeier Hansson a écrit :
What's new in Instiki 0.3.0?
============================

Instiki have moved off the backburner and into full-on development as
its been chosen for playing a part in my bachelor's project on Social
Software. This release is entitled "Before the Storm" as it's mainly
about polish before I start adding features that'll require data
migration. Upgrading to 0.3.0 is a no-brainer. Just move your wikis
from storage/ over from the old installation and all should be fine.

The most apparent change is that the user interface has been polished
for all pages. This includes much requested Textile help on the edit
page. But there's also locking, so you won't accidently start editing
a page someone else is already working on.

Full change list:

* Brought all files into common style (including Textile help on the
edit page)
* Added page locking (if someone already is editing a page there's a
warning)
* Added daemon abilities on Unix (keep Instiki running after you close
the terminal)
* Made port 2500 the default port, so Instiki can be launched by
dobbelt-click
* Added Textile cache to speed-up rendering of large pages
* Made WikiWords look like "Wiki Words"
* Updated RedCloth to 2.0.4

The next release will include a good share of the following stories:

* Each revision is stored on the page object and it's possible to
navigate back through the history with Previous / Next.
* Informal signatures as wiki words (DavidHeinemeierHansson) that are
stored in the cookie and attached to each revision.
* Simple, optional password protection stored in the cookie.
* Export to HTML with all control links stripped. All files named
after their wikinames in one big directory, example:
GetThisStarted.html. HomePage becomes index.html.
* Multiple wiki spaces running on the same port.
* Two RSS feeds for recent changes. "Headlines" with just headlines,
author, and date. "Full content" that also include the entire page
content.


What is Instiki?
================

Admitted, it's Yet Another Wiki Clone[1], but with a strong focus
on simplicity of installation and running:

Step 1. Download
Step 2. Run "instiki.rb 2505"
Step 3. *Chuckle*... "There's no step three!" (TM)

You're now running a perfectly suitable wiki on port 2505
that'll present you with a textarea for the home page on entering.

Instiki lowers the barriers of interest for when you might consider
using a wiki. It's so simple to get running that you'll find yourself
using it for anything -- taking notes, brainstorming, organizing a
gathering.

Instiki reserves a separate WikiSpace for each port number, so
you can run more than one wiki by keeping them on separate ports.
It also means that you can't access the same wiki on another port
than the one you started it on (unless you move the directory in
storage).

Features:
* Regular expression search: Find deep stuff really fast
* Reference tracker: Which other pages are pointing to the current?
* Speed: Using Madelein for persistence (all pages are in memory)
* Textile formatting[2]: By ways of RedCloth
* Embedded webserver: Through WEBrick

Missing:
* Revision control
* Access control (there's not even an explicit user concept)
* File attachments

History:
* 0.3.0: Brought all files into common style (including Textile help
on the edit page)
Added page locking (if someone already is editing a page
there's a warning)
Added daemon abilities on Unix (keep Instiki running after
you close the terminal)
Made port 2500 the default port, so Instiki can be launched
by dobbelt-click
Added Textile cache to speed-up rendering of large pages
Updated RedCloth to 2.0.4
Made WikiWords look like "Wiki Words"
* 0.2.5: Upgraded to RedCloth 2.0.2 and Madeleine 0.6.1, which means
the
Windows problems are gone. Also fixed a problem with wikiwords
that used part of other wikiwords.
* 0.2.0: First public release

Download latest from:
<a
href="http://rubyforge.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=186">http://
rubyforge.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=186</a>

License is the same as Ruby's

[1] <a
href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiClones">http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?
WikiWikiClones</a>
[2] Textile Syntax: <a
href="http://www.textism.com/tools/textile/">http://www.textism.com/
tools/textile/</a>
 
D

David Heinemeier Hansson

What about a 'preview' button? How hard would it be to add?

The upcoming 0.4 release includes revisions, which should help you to
avoid screw something up. There's even a function called continous
revision where you won't generate new revision numbers while working on
a single page as the same author (so you can change, read, tweak).
 
G

Guillaume Marcais

Le 11 avr. 04, à 16:29, David Heinemeier Hansson a écrit :
The upcoming 0.4 release includes revisions, which should help you to
avoid screw something up. There's even a function called continous
revision where you won't generate new revision numbers while working
on a single page as the same author (so you can change, read, tweak).

Great!

Let me be very demanding. What about formatting language independence?
Meaning you can choose between Textil, RDoc, etc. when you create the
wiki.

Guillaume.
 
D

David Heinemeier Hansson

Let me be very demanding. What about formatting language independence?
Meaning you can choose between Textil, RDoc, etc. when you create the
wiki.

Instiki is all about less choices and options leading to a simpler and
easier application, so I don't think that's the road I'd like to
persue. But I am cleaning the code up for 0.4, so if you want to do a
personal fork, it should be very easy indeed.
 

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