Gentoo Wiki:Suggestions/Archive

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Archive
For completed discussion see Archive subpage.

Relationship with existing Gentoo documentation
Will it be possible to somehow incorporate the existing Gentoo documentation into this wiki, perhaps have this as the user editable version, with revisions pushed to the guidexml docs with are the official "reference" and are verified to be of a certain quality by the documentation team. --Mark alec 13:53, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Resume numbered list
When trying to use a RootCmd or  environment within a numbered list, the list counter gets reset to 1. Thus I ended up using bullet lists. (via email)

and tags for references
IMO, the wiki needs and tags, e.g. for quotations from other websites. --Mekeor 21:10, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

(un)fold code button
A button to (un)fold large code and file template blocks, to maintain readability. Hypnos 04:45, 28 September 2011 (UTC)
 * There will be a built-in solution in MediaWiki 1.18, see http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.18#New_plugin_for_collapsible_elements --Astaecker 15:37, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

'External docs' templates
Templates to link to external docs like Wikipedia or Gentoo documentation, see my user page. --Astaecker 13:14, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

Template for Elements in Troubleshooting Sections
Troubleshooting sections on g-w.org just get larger and larger, and it is very difficult to tell when the information in them is still useful.

I propose a {Troubleshooting} template which clearly shows:
 * Date reported
 * Date report was last useful
 * User reporting (allow +1's if possible)
 * Link to bugzilla
 * (Problem description)

For example: {Troubleshooting|2011-10-15|2011-10-25|bgo=366141|Screen all black|blah blah blah}

gives something like:

= Troubleshooting =

Screen All Black
First Reported: 2011-10-15 Reported by: [hangfire] Last Seen: 2011-10-25 {Note|If this information is useful, please update this field!} Bugzilla Link: [link]

blah blah blah

The bugzilla field should support links to other bug trackers (such as bugzilla.kernel.org when it comes back) Hangfire 22:05, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * This one might be a bit tricky as the +1 function needs actual code to back this. Maybe you can browse the MediaWiki Extension list [1] to see if anything offers a similar functionality? Also for this one, please add it to the suggestions page, and if you can, start working on example templates or ask for help with that. At any rate, I support the idea. User:a3li

[1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:Extensions
 * I remember the old g-w.com(before the big wipe) had a which you where supposed to weave into the narrative like you do with  or  . IIRC it went something like  . /Ni1s 22:13, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Hmm, lets let bugzilla do what it's suppose to do, however, Bugzilla Reports seems to be promising for our wiki needs :)mitri 03:30, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Machine Specific Articles
Would it perhaps be a good idea to have a reference article for articles dealing with a specific laptop/desktop/whatever model? These articles on g-w.com really lack consistency. /Ni1s 18:35, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

My email to wiki@gentoo.org:

One feature of g-w.org are the machine-specific pages, which (ideally) have the cpuinfo, lspci and kernel config each for an individual model of desktop / laptop.

The best of these is a fantastic resource - for each piece of hardware, it has a link to a full article explaining how to properly set it up, with short paragraphs with machine- specific quirks and workarounds. These pages are invaluable when buying a new machine, where getting concrete information on processors / cards /chipsets etc. can be really hard to find. eg. http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Acer_Aspire_Revo_R3600_/_R3610 (One of mine :toot:)

The worst of these is a horrendous mess, needing, with loads of partial information explaining hardware that is already properly explained in full and specific articles. cpuinfo and lspci information is incomplete (or does not cover all variants), and there is loads of useless content (such as full copies of xorg.conf). They are a mess, are generally unmaintainable (or unmaintained) and are not helpful. eg. http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Acer_Aspire_3002WLMi

It is really important for the official wiki that machine-specific pages are allowed (as they can be so useful), but that authors are constrained (encouraged!) to write 'good' articles, with many links to properly-maintained information and without useless, replicated partial-guides that go out of date without anyone noticing.

Thus, we need a template or similar to show what is and what is not encouraged in these articles. {Template:Computer} or {Template:Machine} would be good names. Additionally, these would be a good candidate for a separate Category. Hangfire 21:53, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I never understood why whole ls(cpu|pci|usb) dumps would be useful. Why not split it up(use -s?) under some useful wired, wireless, bluetooth headings. /Ni1s 22:18, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I suggest a 'big table' approach, e.g. http://de.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/HP_Compaq_6715b . Astaecker 07:35, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Pros:
 * Compact table to easily determine the support status (see Status column).
 * Links in the first place to properly-maintained articles.
 * Workaround informations possible through Note (german: Hinweis) column.
 * Except of workarounds no maintaining needed.
 * Contras (in comparision to above solution):
 * No 'one-page' guide. Answer: It 's not possible to put all informations of the properly-maintained articles in a 'one-page' guide. It's too much.
 * Big table edits are not user friendly. Solution: We can create an template for that big table, e.g.


 * I would suggest a solution based on templates. As an example take a look at IP stack. So you just insert {Nvidia} to get a few paragraphs or a table with all the info about the GPU, or perhaps something like {GPU:Nvidia} or even {HW:GPU:Nvidia:model#} - so it would be more like a library with descriptions - just point out to the right direction. Pros: easy to maintain in single place. Cons: templates could be difficult to setup, and would require conscious and precise separation of info between templates.

'Link' template for translated pages
solves a problem with linking to translated pages, see the Rationale section. I would like to have some feedback before moving the template in the Template namespace. Astaecker 15:19, 29 October 2011 (UTC)


 * would Kernel do the same trick? )mitri 22:58, 29 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, but only if you're logged in and set your language in the preferences. In every other case - e.g. you're are just visiting to read an article (not logged in) - Special:MyLanguage defaults to english. Astaecker 06:40, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

Small tasks for admins
Make user private sandbox pages with a link in toolbox section or next to the login at the top of the page for easy discoveribility. --Rei4dan 21:27, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Templates need to be localized
Text formatting templates, such as Template:Note or Template:Warning, need to be either automatically localized, or need standard localized versions (e.g. something like Template:Note/ru or Template:Примечание) available for translators to insert manually. — tetromino 19:22, 11 November 2011 (UTC)


 * I experimented with it. Some solutions:
 * Separation of code and text by using subpages. The templates can be protected and translators can still update the text in the subpages.
 * For automatic localization using subpages I found no way to address the subpage (relativ or absolute) inside the template to fetch the translations, because after transclusion all variables (, etc.) apply then to the target page.
 * Translate the text (and only the text) with the translate extension works, but the tags around the text of the original english template will get transcluded and displayed in the target page. No problem with translated templates. Works too for english pages, if we use the english localized template version.
 * Translate the text without the translate extension we can use for each text string a parameter. The localized template version calls main template, passes through all parameters and add the translated text parameters.
 * No separation. The template gets big and the code is harder to read.
 * Automatic localization means, all translations are in the template. Technically we can use a switch function and e.g. User:Astaecker/Lang subpage template to detect the wanted language.
 * I prefer the "translate extension" solution, because of the quality control of the translations. --Astaecker 11:08, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Success Stories
A new category in which users can put their machine configuration. It is nice to divide docs by hardware/software, but seeing a complete working machine of people is something that makes things much clearer.

= Support attachment =

Small script etc...