hey all,
iI was wondering if anyone was working on the following features for mediawiki. Or if they existed already, and I don't know about them:
1) ability to upload a gnuplot data file, and have it turn into an associated PNG graph inside mediawiki.
2) ability to do polling/data collection based off of IP.
If nobody is working on these, I'd like to add them. It would also be cool to add an integrated mailing list creator for projects through interface to majordomo, although I'm a little bit hazy on implementation of this one.
Ed
( ps - for images, how does mediawiki get around the inode limit? I noticed in the LocalSettings.php that there was a directory for images, but I'd think that images/files being stuffed into one directory would ultimately be cause for trouble.. )
On Mon, 30 Aug 2004, Edward Peschko wrote:
ps - for images, how does mediawiki get around the inode limit? I noticed in the LocalSettings.php that there was a directory for images, but I'd think that images/files being stuffed into one directory would ultimately be cause for trouble..
They are stored into subdirectories with names generated from the MD5 hash of the image filename. For example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/upload/7/7d/Brun.jpg
Alfio
Edward Peschko wrote:
- ability to upload a gnuplot data file, and have it turn into an associated PNG graph inside mediawiki.
I'd prefer that, as with many things, we come up with our own syntax for specifying graphs. Gnuplot is not the most intuitive of programs, and ideally it would be possible for a non-technically-minded person to at least put together a simple graph.
Actually, we might want to look into whether gnuplot is the best tool at all. If I remember correctly, it's damn near impossible to generate a histogram (bar graph) in gnuplot, and there's lots of other things that are basically hardcoded into it. I believe Erik Zachte was using another open-source plotting package, ploticus, for the wiki-stats page, which might be another option.
-Mark
On Mon, Aug 30, 2004 at 03:59:54PM -0400, Delirium wrote:
Edward Peschko wrote:
- ability to upload a gnuplot data file, and have it turn into an
associated PNG graph inside mediawiki.
I'd prefer that, as with many things, we come up with our own syntax for specifying graphs. Gnuplot is not the most intuitive of programs, and ideally it would be possible for a non-technically-minded person to at least put together a simple graph.
hmm.
The problem with making your own syntax is that plotting is an extremely difficult task to get correct, and the programs are complicated for a reason..
still, I see value in a small subset of graphing functionality as being part of the core of mediawiki..
Actually, we might want to look into whether gnuplot is the best tool at all. If I remember correctly, it's damn near impossible to generate a histogram (bar graph) in gnuplot, and there's lots of other things that are basically hardcoded into it. I believe Erik Zachte was using another open-source plotting package, ploticus, for the wiki-stats page, which might be another option.
well, I've looked at ploticus - and looked at gnuplot - and they both have their strengths and weaknesses. Ploticus plots data better, wheras you can do various mathematical fits with gnuplot, as well as plot regular mathematical formulas and 3D graphs.
In any case, maybe the answer is having different prefixes for different programs.
graph:file.txt
for regular 'built in' graphing,
graph_gnuplot:file.txt
for gnuplot graphing, and
graph_ploticus:file.txt
for ploticus. In each case, file.txt would have to be a self-contained file which creates one PNG, which would then be named file.png.
Ultimately, the coolest thing would be plotting graphs by Adobe Illustrator, although I really don't know how you could do that (because Illustrator AFAIK does not have a command line interface). By *far* the coolest graphs are made with Illustrator, and they are suitable for high-process printing. Wheras plots with gnuplot and ploticus seem to only be 'servicable'.
Ed
( ps - just curious, but why isn't there a link to upload images, etc on the edit page? AFAIK you need to go to a totally separate page to upload things - it would be nice if there was a popup that let you do it whilst editing the page. )
On Mon, Aug 30, 2004 at 02:27:09PM -0700, Brion Vibber wrote:
Edward Peschko wrote:
ps - just curious, but why isn't there a link to upload images, etc on the edit page?
There is, right in the sidebar. Same as on every page.
I don't see it.. are you referring to clicking the 'special pages' link, and then clicking 'upload a file'?
what I was thinking was having a link to upload on the edit page itself, such that it makes a popup window that allows you to do the upload whilst you are editing (so you don't lose focus on what you are doing and have to go to a different tab, browser instance, or different screen to do this)
Ed
Edward Peschko wrote:
On Mon, Aug 30, 2004 at 02:27:09PM -0700, Brion Vibber wrote:
Edward Peschko wrote:
ps - just curious, but why isn't there a link to upload images, etc on the edit page?
There is, right in the sidebar. Same as on every page.
I don't see it.. are you referring to clicking the 'special pages' link, and then clicking 'upload a file'?
Toolbox ▪ What links here ▪ Related changes ▪ Upload file ▪ Special pages
what I was thinking was having a link to upload on the edit page itself, such that it makes a popup window that allows you to do the upload whilst you are editing (so you don't lose focus on what you are doing and have to go to a different tab, browser instance, or different screen to do this)
You can always open any link in a new windows, this is a standard browser function.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
On Mon, Aug 30, 2004 at 03:02:44PM -0700, Brion Vibber wrote:
Edward Peschko wrote:
On Mon, Aug 30, 2004 at 02:27:09PM -0700, Brion Vibber wrote:
Edward Peschko wrote:
ps - just curious, but why isn't there a link to upload images, etc on the edit page?
There is, right in the sidebar. Same as on every page.
I don't see it.. are you referring to clicking the 'special pages' link, and then clicking 'upload a file'?
Toolbox ??? What links here ??? Related changes ??? Upload file ??? Special pages
ah.. I see it now. I missed it before.
thanks,
Ed
On Monday 30 August 2004 21:59, Delirium wrote:
Edward Peschko wrote:
- ability to upload a gnuplot data file, and have it turn into an
associated PNG graph inside mediawiki.
I'd prefer that, as with many things, we come up with our own syntax for specifying graphs. Gnuplot is not the most intuitive of programs, and ideally it would be possible for a non-technically-minded person to at least put together a simple graph.
Actually, we might want to look into whether gnuplot is the best tool at all. If I remember correctly, it's damn near impossible to generate a histogram (bar graph) in gnuplot, and there's lots of other things that are basically hardcoded into it. I believe Erik Zachte was using another open-source plotting package, ploticus, for the wiki-stats page, which might be another option.
I'd also recommend taking a look at JpGraph. It is very easy to program and produces nice graphs. The only disadvantage is that it is under QPL which doesn't bother Wikipedia but might hurt other projects.
wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org