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== Characteristics == [[File:Ward Cunningham - Commons-1.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Ward Cunningham]] In their 2001 book ''[[The Wiki Way|The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web]]'', Cunningham and co-author [[Bo Leuf]] described the essence of the wiki concept:<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Leuf |first1=Bo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JmvbAAAAMAAJ |title=The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web |last2=Cunningham |first2=Ward |date=2001 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-201-71499-9 |page=16 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples |title= Wiki Design Principles |access-date=2002-04-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020430181259/https://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples |archive-date=April 30, 2002}}</ref> * "A wiki invites all users—not just experts—to edit any [[Web page|page]] or to create new pages within the wiki website, using only a standard [[vanilla software|'plain-vanilla']] Web browser without any extra [[browser extension|add-ons]]." * "Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link creation intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target page exists or not." * "A wiki is ''not'' a carefully crafted site created by experts and professional writers and designed for casual visitors. Instead, it seeks to involve the typical visitor/user in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the website landscape." === Editing === {{redirect|Wikitext|the Wikipedia help page|Help:Wikitext|selfref=yes}} ==== Source editing ==== Some wikis will present users with an edit button or link directly on the page being viewed. This will open an [[user interface|interface]] for writing, formatting, and structuring page content. The interface may be a source editor, which is text-based and employs a lightweight markup language (also known as ''wikitext'', ''wiki markup'', or ''wikicode''), or a [[#Visual editing|visual editor]]. For example, in a source editor, starting lines of text with [[asterisk]]s could create a [[Bullet (typography)|bulleted list]]. The [[syntax (programming languages)|syntax]] and features of wiki markup languages for denoting style and structure can vary greatly among [[List of wiki software|implementations]]. Some allow the use of {{abbrlink|HTML|Hypertext Markup Language}} and {{abbrlink|CSS|Cascading Style Sheets}},<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dohrn |first1=Hannes |last2=Riehle |first2=Dirk |chapter=Design and implementation of the Sweble Wikitext parser: Unlocking the structured data of Wikipedia |date=2011 |title=Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration |chapter-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2038558.2038571 |language=en |publisher=ACM |pages=72–81 |doi=10.1145/2038558.2038571 |isbn=978-1-4503-0909-7}}</ref> while others prevent the use of these to foster uniformity in appearance. ==== Example of syntax ==== A short section of ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' rendered in wiki markup: <!-- Note: As of HTML5 (W3C Recommendation status in 2014), <p> does not require a closing tag. --> {| class="wikitable noprint" |- ! style="width:33.3%;"|Wiki markup ! style="width:33.3%;"|Equivalent in HTML ! style="width:33.3%;"|Output shown to readers |- style="vertical-align:top;" |<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">"Take some more [[tea]]," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had '''nothing''' yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take ''less''," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take ''more'' than nothing."</syntaxhighlight> |<syntaxhighlight lang="html">"Take some more <a href="/wiki/Tea" title="Tea">tea</a>," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. <p>"I've had <strong>nothing</strong> yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more." <p>"You mean you can't take <em>less</em>," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take <em>more</em> than nothing."</syntaxhighlight> |<br>"Take some more [[tea]]," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had '''nothing''' yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take ''less''," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take ''more'' than nothing." |} {{anchor|visual|wysiwyg|WYSIWYG}} ==== Visual editing ==== While wiki engines have traditionally offered source editing to users, in recent years some implementations have added a rich text editing mode. This is usually implemented, using [[JavaScript]], as an interface which translates formatting instructions chosen from a [[toolbar]] into the corresponding wiki markup or HTML. This is generated and submitted to the server [[Transparency (human–computer interaction)|transparently]], shielding users from the technical detail of markup editing and making it easier for them to change the content of pages. An example of such an interface is the [[VisualEditor]] in [[MediaWiki]], the wiki engine used by Wikipedia. [[WYSIWYG]] editors may not provide all the features available in wiki markup, and some users prefer not to use them, so a source editor will often be available simultaneously. ==== Version history ==== Some wiki implementations keep a record of changes made to wiki pages, and may store every version of the page permanently. This allows authors to revert a page to an older version to rectify a mistake, or counteract a malicious or inappropriate edit to its content.<ref name="auto">{{harvnb|Ebersbach|2008|p=178}}</ref> These stores are typically presented for each page in a list, called a "log" or "edit history", available from the page via a link in the interface. The list displays [[metadata]] for each revision to the page, such as the time and date of when it was stored, and the name of the person who created it, alongside a link to view that specific revision. A [[diff]] (short for "difference") feature may be available, which highlights the changes between any two revisions. ==== Edit summaries ==== {{redirect|Edit summary|the Wikipedia help page|Help:Edit summary|selfref=y}} The edit history view in many wiki implementations will include ''edit summaries'' written by users when submitting changes to a page. Similar to the function of a [[Logging (computing)|log message]] in a [[revision control]] system, an edit summary is a short piece of text which summarizes and perhaps explains the change, for example "Corrected grammar" or "Fixed table formatting to not extend past page width". It is not inserted into the article's main text. === Navigation === Traditionally, wikis offer free navigation between their pages via [[hypertext]] links in page text, rather than requiring users to follow a formal or structured navigation scheme. Users may also create [[index (publishing)|index]]es or [[table of contents]] pages, hierarchical categorization via a [[taxonomy]], or other forms of [[ad hoc]] content organization. Wiki implementations can provide one or more ways to categorize or [[tag (metadata)|tag]] pages to support the maintenance of such index pages, such as a [[backlink]] feature which displays all pages that link to a given page. Adding categories or tags to a page makes it easier for other users to find it. Most wikis allow the titles of pages to be searched amongst, and some offer [[full text search]] of all stored content. ==== Navigation between wikis ==== {{redirect|WikiNode|the app for the Apple iPad|WikiNodes}} [[File:Development of "Mathe für Nicht-Freaks" from Sep 2009 to June 2016.webm|thumb|Visualization of the collaborative work in the German wiki project [[b:de:Mathe für Nicht-Freaks|Mathe für Nicht-Freaks]]]] Some wiki communities have established navigational networks between each other using a system called ''WikiNodes''. A WikiNode is a page on a wiki which describes and links to other, related wikis. Some wikis operate a structure of ''neighbors'' and ''delegates'', wherein a neighbor wiki is one which discusses similar content or is otherwise of interest, and a delegate wiki is one which has agreed to have certain content delegated to it.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=WikiNodes |title=Frequently Asked Questions |url=https://wikinodes.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.fcg/FrequentlyAskedQuestions |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810213702/https://wikinodes.wiki.taoriver.net/moin.fcg/FrequentlyAskedQuestions |archive-date=August 10, 2007}}</ref> WikiNode networks act as [[webring]]s which may be navigated from one node to another to find a wiki which addresses a specific subject. === Linking to and naming pages === The syntax used to create internal hyperlinks varies between wiki implementations. Beginning with the WikiWikiWeb in 1995, most wikis used [[camel case]] to name pages,<ref>Bäckström, A., & Wändin, L. (2005). Spatial Hypertext Editing Tools for Wiki Web Systems.</ref> which is when words in a phrase are [[capital letter|capitalized]] and the spaces between them removed. In this system, the phrase "camel case" would be rendered as "CamelCase". In early wiki engines, when a page was displayed, any instance of a camel case phrase would be transformed into a link to another page named with the same phrase. While this system made it easy to link to pages, it had the downside of requiring pages to be named in a form deviating from standard spelling, and titles of a single word required abnormally capitalizing one of the letters (e.g. "WiKi" instead of "Wiki"). Some wiki implementations attempt to improve the display of camel case page titles and links by reinserting spaces and possibly also reverting to lower case, but this simplistic method is not able to correctly present titles of mixed capitalization. For example, "[[Kingdom of France]]" as a page title would be written as "KingdomOfFrance", and displayed as "Kingdom Of France". To avoid this problem, the syntax of wiki markup gained ''free links'', wherein a term in natural language could be wrapped in special characters to turn it into a link without modifying it. The concept was given the name in its first implementation, in [[UseModWiki]] in February 2001.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.usemod.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?UseModWiki/OldVersions | title = UseModWiki/OldVersions | last = Adams | first = Clifford | date = 26 April 2001 | access-date = 25 July 2024}}</ref> In that implementation, link terms were wrapped in a double set of square brackets, for example <kbd><nowiki>[[Kingdom of France]]</nowiki></kbd>. This syntax was adopted by a number of later wiki engines. It is typically possible for users of a wiki to create links to pages that do not yet exist, as a way to invite the creation of those pages. Such links are usually differentiated visually in some fashion, such as being colored red instead of the default blue, which was the case in the original WikiWikiWeb, or by appearing as a question mark next to the linked words.
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