[Pmwiki-users] File upload feature discussion

Davis, James C. jdavis at cob.tamucc.edu
Mon Nov 18 16:13:51 CST 2002


> I agree that redundancy is bad, but it's not something that PmWiki can
> (or should) prevent.  What is better is to come up with mechanisms that
> encourage the right behaviors at the user interface level.

I don't know if I agree that it can't prevent it, but should it is an
interesting question. How much do you value your disk space? Sure, space is
getting cheaper all the time, but the amount of information to be stored is
growing even faster. Digital photography, for example is just now taking
off, and file sizes get larger and larger with each new generation. I think
I will have to create a redundancy checker that runs as a chron job and
replaces redundant files with sym links. Maybe this is how it should be.
Pmwiki will not be responsible for controlling redundancy, but some other
external program. I've just about given up on trying to change user
behavior. I think they're just gonna do what they're gonna do, and systems
are going to have to be smart enough to deal with it. (This is what happens
when you work in network management for a while)

James Davis
Network Manager
College of Business
Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi
(361) 825-5926
jdavis at cob.tamucc.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick R. Michaud [mailto:pmichaud at sci.tamucc.edu]
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 3:40 PM
To: Davis, James C.
Cc: 'pmwiki-users at pmichaud.com'
Subject: RE: [Pmwiki-users] File upload feature discussion


On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, Davis, James C. wrote:

> >From my perspective redundancy is an issue, especially if files are
attached
> to individual pages. Imagine a banner that is included on every page in a
> group. If a group has 100 pages in it that's 100 copies of the same file.
> It's a waste of disk space in my opinion. Also, I just personally can't
> stand data redundancy. I think this was drilled into my head in my DBMS
> classes. :)

I agree that redundancy is bad, but it's not something that PmWiki can
(or should) prevent.  What is better is to come up with mechanisms that
encourage the right behaviors at the user interface level.

> I actually often wish there was a "list all groups" or "list all pages in
a
> group" function. For me, searching is not always the primary method of
> finding the information I want, and often browsing a list of pages is
often
> more useful. I guess maybe it's the case when you're not completely sure
> what you're looking for. I would think there are others out there that
think
> this way as well, or maybe I'm just crazy (quite possible).

I'm open for suggestions about how this ought to work.  I'm wanting to
avoid overloading the query string too much, however, or creating lots of
special-purpose "Handle*" functions.  I'd rather have a markup that means
"generate list of XXX" here.

> The problem I see with not associating files with a page is name
collisions.
> This would undoubtedly cause mass chaos on a large wiki system. 

Agreed, which seems to argue towards the attach-to-page model for file
uploads.  I guess I haven't heard anyone arguing for the "throw everything
in a common pool" model yet, so we might as well assume the page
attachments model is the way we'll head.  If anyone feels differently,
now's a good time to speak up before we get too committed to the other
path.

Pm




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