Where is update info?

Richard A. O'Keefe ok at cs.otago.ac.nz
Fri Jul 5 03:55:49 UTC 2002


Sergei Gnezdov asks:
	Does it make sense to use swiki instead of mailing list?

It would, IF networking were free and IF going clicky-clicky through
a hyperdimensional maze weren't driving me screaming up the wall.

If it's in my mailbox, I *have* it.  I don't need to go through some
wretched browser and twiddle my thumbs while it downloads stuff and
displays pictures I'd rather not have.  I can file it if I want it.
I don't have to go clicky-clicky again and then strip out a lot of
HTML.

	Main reason: A lot of knowledge never leaves this list.

Bad reason.  This list is ARCHIVED.  If it's in this list, it's not lost.

	Second reason: Knowledge is not categorized in the mailing list.

Also a bad reason.  Categorisation doesn't happen all by itself.
Someone has to MAKE it happen.  For heaven's sake, we're talking about
finalising the 3.2 release any day now, and some of the (in my view
urgent) bug fixes I posted in May still haven't been harvested.  I am
_not_ happy about having to reapply those patches, but the reason is
simple:  we only have 6 full-time harvesters and they are seriously
overworked.  If we don't even have enough people to harvest all the
bug fixes, where are we going to get the people to put messages into
categories?

Supposing that messages _could_ be put into categories, nothing stops
that being done to the mailing list archive.  (Arguably, the [tag]
convention that the harvesters rely on _is_ a manually applied
categorisation, and [FIX], [ENH], and [GOODIE] messages _are_ fairly
directly accessible from the Harvesting Swiki page.)

What we really need is a first rate information retrieval engine for
the Squeak mailing list archive.  Hmm, I've got a PhD student just
starting who has years of IR experience, I should ask him about this.
This is the approach that will give us the most help finding things
for the least cost.

>From my point of view, the Swiki is a maze without signposts.  I find
it very hard to find things there, and having found them, to find them
again.  (Don't tell me about bookmarks, I already have hundreds of the
things.)
	
	
	A problem: Correctness or applicability of information on swiki.
	It is not clear when information on swiki is outdated, because of the new 
	sqeak release.
	
	
	



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