[pmwiki-users] Conceptual challenges from ZAPwiki...

[Ian MacGregor]

On Friday 01 June 2007 11:06:44 pm Christophe David wrote:
> >> I'll keep my comments very short here.
>
> With all respect, I feel this "my wiki is bigger than yours"
> discussion should be at least held somewhere else, or better simply
> stopped.
I agree 100%. This is pmwiki-users, not pmwiki-let's-bash-each-other's-work.

>
> Trying not to add even more noise here:
>
> - People make the effort to install and run PmWiki because they find
> the actual product meets their needs in the real world.  Not because
> its author tried to convince everyone the PmWiki he had in mind before
> making it was going to be better than whatever other wiki.
>
> - I did install ZAPwiki in order to make my mind.  The "automatic
> installation" did not do all its magic for me and I got several errors
> I had to fix to let it just run.  After that, I failed to find
> anything that would motivate me to look at it even further at this
> stage. Probably a convincing demonstration would help a lot more than
> endless discussions.
>
> - Most important point to me (and I guess some others might agree):
> PmWiki works great for me.  Its author provides exceptional support
> and keeps making the product better and better.
Again, I agree 100%. PmWiki has been one of the best software applications I 
have ever used.

>
> But the documentation is inevitably somewhat behind the current state
> of the development.  This prevents me from taking full advantage of
> some of the features, and causes me frustrating losses of time.  Then
> it causes losses of time for people in this list who are kind enough
> to answer my questions about what I did not find in the documentation.
There are some of us who are actively working to improve the documentation. 
Have a look at the FAQ: http://pmwiki.org/wiki/PmWiki/FAQ
I feel it's much improved over it's previous state. Unfortunately, some of us 
have no php knowledge so we must contribute in other areas.

>
> Wouldn't all the time spent on this thread be better used to update
> pmwiki.org with the latest features and to provide working examples of
> how to use them ?
>
> If all the principles advocated by its author are correct,  ZAPwiki
> should reach the point where people will actually **like** it and
> start actually **using** it in the real world it instead of just
> talking about it.
I feel that discussion of other wiki's should cease altogether and we should 
focus on "our wiki".

>
> But we are not up there yet.  And in the mean time, I would rather see
> the available energy of the PmWIki "community" used to make PmWIki
> even better, including its documentation, than to try to convince
> someone that some concepts are not as great in real life as they look
> at first glance.
>
> Christophe
>
Respectfully,
Ian MacGregor