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0 pointsColinWright13y ago0 comments

I don't understand. It's a wiki. You have a collection of plain text files with markdown or something. There's a web server. The webserver expects html.

How does the text get converted to html? What provokes the process? Do you just initiate it by hand having changed the plain text files? If so, what's the difference between a wiki and a static web site?

I don't understand what you're trying to achieve, and why you're calling it a wiki.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

gexla13y ago· 1 in thread

I don't quite get it either.

Could you use something like Org mode in Emacs? Org mode has a sort of personal wiki feel. Everything is stored as text and you can export your files as HTML.

bobcattr13y ago

No can't use that.

bobcattr13y ago· 1 in thread

You convert the files via whatever does conversion. The same as any other SSG.

The difference is the layout of the data. In a wiki the data is usually laid out hierarchically. Regular static sites are not. Most that I have looked at create blogs.

I'm caling it a wiki because with the exception of not using a browser it should be one.

ColinWrightOP13y ago

What's an SSG? I've gone and tried to look it up on wikipedia, but there's nothing that appears to be relevant.

  > In a wiki the data is usually
  > laid out hierarchically.

What? No. In a wiki the pages are semi-automatically linked. Go and look at the very original wiki, the very first one by Ward Cunningham[0]. Pages are linked completely according to the text, and there is absolutely no hierarchical structure. Even wikipedia has no hierarchical structure because of being a wiki. It has some structure, but that is imposed independently.

You then also say:

  > ... not using a browser ...

So it would appear that we have established that what you want:

* Isn't editable through a web interface - unlike a wiki

* Has some sort of hierarchical structure - unlike a wiki

* Doesn't use a browser - unlike a wiki

So what you want is, in fact, not a wiki. That leads me to wonder what you do actually want. You seem to want to have some pages that use markdown (or something), and are somehow arranged in a hierarchical manner, and then somehow presented in that hierarchical manner, but without using a browser.

So I don't understand what you want. Here are some questions:

* You say you want the files in some sort of hierarchy - how is that defined?

* How do you envisage a user accessing this static "site" given that you said you don't use a browser?

* After you make a change to a page, do you initiate the re-building of your static site manually, or do you envisage some sort of automated process?

* Where is your "simple static wiki" stored, in order to be accessible?

* Is it just you accessing it? Or is it open to others?

Answers to these (and many other) questions might help us understand what you actually want.

Just don't call it a wiki.

[0] http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WelcomeVisitors

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