I have an idea on how to do the URLs for the Textbook wiki.
As much of textbook structure is divided into chapters and subsections, and this structure lends itself well to the web, maybe we could reflect this in the URLs of the textbooks. I know that this was not appropriate for the general nature of the WP but as we move into the specific nature of the textbook subsite it could work.
http://textbook.wikipedia.org/organic_chemistry/foundational_concepts/histor...
could be the full nested URL of a section on the vital force historical idea of organic chemistry. The name of the page would be only the words after the last slash, here, "Vital force".
Maybe the page could have a series of links at the top to each level of the heirarchy:
Organic chemistry > Foundational concepts > History of organic chemistry > Vital force
All of the sections of the book on organic chemistry would be housed under http://textbook.wikipedia.org/organic_chemisry/ and the software to compile the "next" page function for each module could just read thru the URLs nested in the /organic_chemistry/ section. If someone wanted to create a different book on the same subject they could just come up with a slightly different opener, like /ochem/ or /organic123/ etc.
Check out the link I sent once before, http://test.wikipedia.org/Organic_textbook , for an idea of how a book could be structured, it shouldnt hold any big surprises.
The software could also have the feature of telling after each link of the total number of links nested below so the reader can have a relative idea at each step of where the bulk of the content lies.
One final idea is to use an idea similar to that employed by the Yahoo briefcase where you can copy modules from one folder to another, for example to create a derivative textbook or just take a couple of modules from one to another without having to open each page and copy out the code.
The idea of using nested URLs will also help us get around funky URLs and/or page names for pages with common names like "Problem set". Plus this structure of URL hierarchy should be familiar to most internet users already so there is little learning curve.
--Karl
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Karl Wick wrote:
http://textbook.wikipedia.org/organic_chemistry/foundational_concepts/histor...
This doesn't fit in very well with the idea of reusing the same modules in different ways for different textbooks. Now, I don't know how big of a deal that is; will such reuse be limited to a few cases, so that copying modules will work:
One final idea is to use an idea similar to that employed by the Yahoo briefcase where you can copy modules from one folder to another, for example to create a derivative textbook or just take a couple of modules from one to another without having to open each page and copy out the code.
:or if we'll be reusing modules all over the place in many ways. In the later case, a URL that first states the module name, then lists whatever other data we need in ?%%=%% format, would be best IMO.
The idea of using nested URLs will also help us get around funky URLs and/or page names for pages with common names like "Problem set". Plus this structure of URL hierarchy should be familiar to most internet users already so there is little learning curve.
Even if the latter case wins above and y'all agree with me, still [[Vital force/Problem set]] would be a reasonable module title.
That said, problem set modules could well present their own special difficulties if the modules that they build on are reused in many ways. Here an idea off the cuff: Each /problem/ is a separate file, with some of its data specifying which modules it uses, and the problem will appear in a given textbook as soon as all of its prerequisites have been read. (The textbook itself might specify, however, that problems can appear, say, only at the end of a chapter.) This is just off the cuff, remember! ^_^
-- Toby
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