[Pmwiki-users] Force WikiWords for PmWiki group

[Steven Leite]

> > I am setting up a wiki for a programming project. We use lots of words
> > like "OpenGL" and "Direct3D", so I just turned off WikiWords entirely to
> > make things easier. When I did this, a lot of the links in the PmWiki
> > group also got turned off -- bad! For now I have fixed it with a group
> > config file, but I thought I'd mention it. It might be worth either
> > converting the PmWiki group to freelinks, or enable WikiWords for that
> > group by default, so that new users don't have to figure it out on their
> > own.

* I Agree *

I've encountered this very same thing.  The very first thing I did with my
PmWiki was to turn off WikiWords.  Now I have two installs running on my
machine, one default install (WikiWords enabled) so I can access the
documentation which I do frequently, and another install where I do all my
playing, and project creation (WikiWords disabled).

> Well, I don't want all (or even most) of the links in the PmWiki group
> to be freelinks, because the pages in the PmWiki group are often new
> users' first exposure to the wiki markup language or the place they
> turn to for markup examples.

* My thoughts about WikiWords and Wiki's in General *

I think the invention of WikiWords or CamelCase is a terrible tragedy.
NOBODY (who has NOT used a wiki before) would consider that to be "natural"
.. It's actually frightening to think that users "first exposure" to wiki
markup will be teaching them CamelCase!  :o !!  (My Personal Opinion) I
think WikiWords should be banned from every Wiki.  (LoL).   Now days Wiki's
(especially PmWiki) are being used for more and more variety of purposes,
especially it can be found in corporations and business websites where
business owners are thrilled that they can have a lavish website AND be able
to edit it themselves.  Unfortunately, WikiWords (particularly Title and
Group names) are still a detourent.  I'm waiting for this to be enhaced, as
well as using Spaces in file names and WikiPages and Group names.  I think
that's still far off though. :-(

* Counter Argument *

> And I don't want to do per-group customizations in the default
configuration
> because that confuses admins

>also ("hey, I turned off WikiWords but
> they're still enabled in the PmWiki group even though I didn't create a
> local/PmWiki.php file...what's going on behind the scenes?").

> "Hey, I turned off WikiWords but they're still enabled in the PmWiki
group"

as apposed to:  "Hey, I disabled WikiWords, but now all the documentation
has become useless!  What's going on here?"

> I'm open to other suggestions, but so far I think the current setup
> best follows the principle of least surprise.

* Solution / Compromise *

Well, having said all that, there is one solution to the big problem of the
WikiDocumentation being disabled when WikiWords are disabled which J Perkins
hinted at in the first paragraph (above), and that is, creating a Group
customization for pmwiki (PmWiki.php) in your local/ folder, and enabling
WikiWords there (to fix your broken documentation).

It's a simple and effective solution.  Somebody ought to document that
somewhere :-)  Can someone tell me precisely what a user should put in that
PmWiki.php to obtain the desired result?

Another solution would be in-fact, to ship PmWiki with WikiWords disabled by
default.  Better yet, completely elliminate WikiWords from PmWiki.  Make it
a {{Free Link Only}} Wiki; kill all the documentation that even makes
reference to WikiWords and WikiWord syntax.

LoL .. yeah, I know, I'm dreaming!

--S