[Mediawiki-l] Is MediaWiki-l dysfunctional? What is it good for, really?

[Monahon, Peter B.]

> Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 15:59:38 +0100
> From: Paul Williams <paul at skenmy.com>
> Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Is MediaWiki-l 
>      dysfunctional? What is it good for, really?
>
> > Peter Blaise wrote: ... If YOU know how 
> > to install MediaWiki on Window XP Pro 
> > with Apache, PHP, MySQL and 
> > PHPMyAdmin, then please contribute 
> > your notes and make the list as useful 
> > for me as you claim it is for you.
>
> I would personally use the documentation 
> available - which I found with less than 
> 3 minutes browsing the MediaWiki website.
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Streamlined_Windows_Install_Guide
> Paul W  http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/User:Skenmy


Thank you very much, Paul,  

Yes, I did find that, and it appears to be close to the sequence of
events I'm working out on my own at the moment, though much briefer.
However, the challenge for newbies (and oldies alike) is when the
instructions skip over salient details and merely say things like: 

"...A page will appear that tells you that the wiki is not set up, and
that you need to do that first.  Click the appropriate link and then
fill in form.  The rest is done automatically..."  

... and that is all it says!  Which we find a tad bit, um, unguiding.  

Anyway, it's a useful synopsys or overview.  

It's sort of like saying, 

"...To drive a car, get in, start it, put it in gear, and go..."  

Great to be brief, but, anyone who's not familiar with different door
handles (or finds they have a quaint MG with no door handles at all,
just the wires inside), or if the door is locked and they don't have the
key, well then, they haven't got much help form those brief instructions
yet, have they?  

I wish there were an easy way to expand the brief outline with details,
perhaps like http://tkoutline.sourceforge.net/wiki/25 - is there a way
to find if something like that has been implemented in MeidiWiki.org?

- Peter Blaise