Cleaning up the Wiki?

Hello

I am building a Prusa and in that process I find that the RepRap Wiki is sort of outdated.

Thing is, I can't edit the wiki. Or rather - it looks like I am allowed to do it, but when I try doing edits in the sandbox the preview results make no sense at all. Is that even HTML?

I mean, I tried just reordering the four boxes with Prusa, Mendel, Huxley and Darwin by moving the code sections, because I wanted to place the Prusa first in the array (as it is the recommended choice). This reordered the lists in the boxes but the headings and images didn't move so they were mismatched with the lists. And how do I edit the navigation box to the left?

So clearly, I am too ignorant to edit a wiki.

And there are some things that need fixing. When I search for instructions on for example getting RepRap working in Linux, Google finds me a lot of pages that are a) seemingly on the RepRap wiki site, but b) invisible from the wiki itself, and c) outdated.

For example, I had a beast of a chore getting Oracle/Sun Java to work in the various post 10.04-Ubuntu distributions I have experimented with. The package was deprecated from the repositories, the manual installation failed because of dependency problems, and so on.

Then I found much to my astonishment that RepRap actually works in OpenJDK despite the (old and apparently outdated) information in the wiki that claims that it shouldn't. No downloading tarballs and moving files to /usr/var/blahblah, just reach for the Ubuntu Software Center and look for java and java3d. I guess things have evolved since 2008 or so when the notes were written. Granted, I haven't actually USED my unfinished Prusa with RepRap/OpenJDK yet, so I may be wrong.

There are other things - Googling for "reprap linux" gives as the first result [reprap.org] which sounds proper but where it says right on the top "This page describes something which is no longer the most recent version. For the replacement version see: DriverSoftware#Installation"

Which in turn sends you to [reprap.org] where it says "This page has been flagged as containing duplicate material. An editor has suggested merging this page or section into Installing RepRap on your computer. (Discuss)"

Also, the link to the software sends you to [sourceforge.net] where you find the 20110509 version of the software. BUT: that is not the latest, because if you search SourceForge for "reprap" you get to [sourceforge.net] where it states "This repository is now frozen. The latest version of the RepRap project can be found at [github.com]."

I don't even know what the GitHub is and how it differs from SourceForge. What is the difference between the top entry "Host - RepRap host software" and the second, "Release - Releases of the RepRap Java host software" ? Well, apparently that the second one is what I suppose most people would be looking for, as it contains the 20111115 release of the actual software. Not intuitive for a greasemonkey mechanic such as me, iterative trial and error that could be avoided.

At this point, and rubbing my eyes, I think "Is it too much to ask for that there would be a link in the navigation box to the left at [reprap.org] where there would be a link to the latest release of the software? And while we are at it, a link to the STL files for printing parts?"

I know that this is a community project and that we are all encouraged to contribute ourselves - and therein lies the problem: if I am too lazy or daft to edit the wiki myself, can I really ask of someone else to do it? I don't really feel authorized to edit the wiki, I have this intimidating feeling that if I for example add links to the GitHub site I will offend someone who has strong opinions about it. Plus I'm not really a software guy so I will probably do it wrong.

As it seems at the moment the resources are scattered and in many cases outdated. It would be fabulous if someone could tidy up things a bit. Adrian Bowyer already did a tremendous thing birthing the RepRap, I dare not bug him about cleaning up the wiki for me because I am too stupid to do it myself.

The TL;DNR bottom line to this my rant would be this question: is someone maintaining the wiki, and could that person please do some changes?

Alternatively: how do I do it myself? Is there a "Wikis for complete idiots" around?

Quote
Michail
Thing is, I can't edit the wiki. Or rather - it looks like I am allowed to do it, but when I try doing edits in the sandbox the preview results make no sense at all. Is that even HTML?

Alternatively: how do I do it myself? Is there a "Wikis for complete idiots" around?

Well... I don't know where to start; on the one hand, you are 100% correct the WIKI links and accessibility to the information could be improved; on the other hand, RTFM!

No, a wiki is not HTML! Some HTLM tags are allowed.

Best would be to read the Help:Formatting page and the Help:Tables page. This should get you started.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2012 06:44AM by rhmorrison.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

Michail Wrote:
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> Then I found much to my astonishment that RepRap
> actually works in OpenJDK despite ...

You don't actually even need that software package for anything. It's just one option and the most common recommendation right now is to slice the model into printer commands (G-code) using Slic3r and perform the actual printing using the Printrun suite. (One of these is written in Perl and other in Python so no Java needed.) Oh, and Github is a service offering version control for open source projects, and you can pull the sources using software called Git.

Thanks for answering.

As I am obviously new to editing wikis - how does the authoring process work - do I just edit with impunity or are changes sent to someone for approval before being published?

Assuming I want to add a link to the latest controller software, should I point to the RepRap github or some other repository? I would like to add links to STL files for the hardware, but I find all manner of official and improved versions of the components and I don't really feel qualified to choose.

Seriously, the ostensible anarchy scares me. I expect to make an edit and then get cussed out because someone with more authority thinks I did it wrong. So I am basically asking what the chain of command is here?

Thanks for the Slic3r and Printrun info, I've built all the hardware and hooked up a laptop, but I get no response from the Sanguinololu yet so G-code is still beyond the horizon for me. I'm running the java RepRap at the XYZ tab and try to figure why the stepper motors don't do anything.

Michail Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Seriously, the ostensible anarchy scares me. I
> expect to make an edit and then get cussed out
> because someone with more authority thinks I did
> it wrong. So I am basically asking what the chain
> of command is here?

The wiki has an user group called RepRapDevelopers. Some of the pages, like the front page, are edit-protected, so you can't just go and edit them, unless you belong to the group. The rest works more or less like Wikipedia does: anyone can edit, but people are watching what's being edited, so one shouldn't go around changing things without good reason. Someone will just revert the changes back if they are not appropriate.

Michail Wrote:
> As I am obviously new to editing wikis - how does
> the authoring process work - do I just edit with
> impunity or are changes sent to someone for
> approval before being published?
Changes are instant, no editor or approval first.
Take a look at some wikipedia introduction videos, they explain it well. Here's one: [www.youtube.com]

> Seriously, the ostensible anarchy scares me. I
> expect to make an edit and then get cussed out
> because someone with more authority thinks I did
> it wrong. So I am basically asking what the chain
> of command is here?
We're generally a friendly bunch here, so don't worry. If your edit is plain wrong, it'll be reverted, and you have to do a whole lot of mischief before anyone calls you out on it.

The power of a wiki lies in making it a group effort, so thank you for contributing!

Edit: It's spelled "thank you", not "than you".

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2012 03:20PM by Nudel.

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-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

Right. Thanks for the heads-up.

> Some of the pages, like the front page, are edit-protected

Ah, that explains some elements of my confusion.