Help talk:Contents - Revision history

Jnc: /* Our approach */ new section

2025-03-21T20:42:44Z

Our approach: new section

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:42, 21 March 2025
Line 14:		Line 14:

	No reaction from anyone? [[User:Jnc\|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc\|talk]]) 03:26, 3 November 2024 (CET)		No reaction from anyone? [[User:Jnc\|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc\|talk]]) 03:26, 3 November 2024 (CET)

			== Our approach ==

			Some further thoughts on what our approach should be:

			: I'd like to see the CHWiki really focus on catering to our 'average' reader; I do not ''object'' to making ''some'' detail available, as long as it is done in a way that does not detract from the experience for the 'average' reader.
			: So those two articles ([[PDP-1]] and [[Whirlwind]]) are on the 'short' end of the 'acceptable' range - they aren't stubs, and give a decent very high-level view of the machines - but their technical details content has been boiled down to a sentence or two - as short as I could possibly make them - in line with the goal at the top of the article here.
			: So the PDP-1 article says that it has only a single accumulator, and gives the basic instruction format, but no more. The Whirlwind article is about the same; microscopically less. It might be nice to add a little more detailed content, but look at the way that was done for the PDP-11; there is a separate [[PDP-11 architecture]] article, which gives a ''readable'' form of the information in the average PDP-11 reference card. Note that it is all in a separate page, to keep the detail from cluttering up the 'basic' PDP-11 page.
			: The average Wikipedia article on computing topics is like an old attic - stuffed full with every possible piece of information.

			If I ever get a chance, I'll integrate any non-duplicate content from these into the page here. [[User:Jnc\|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc\|talk]]) 21:42, 21 March 2025 (CET)

Jnc: /* Sourcing */ No reaction from anyone?

2024-11-03T02:26:58Z

Sourcing: No reaction from anyone?

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:26, 3 November 2024
Line 12:		Line 12:

	If we do decide we want to start sourcing, I should look and see if the Wikipedia <nowiki><ref></nowiki> system is installed here; it might not be. [[User:Jnc\|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc\|talk]]) 13:00, 30 October 2024 (CET)		If we do decide we want to start sourcing, I should look and see if the Wikipedia <nowiki><ref></nowiki> system is installed here; it might not be. [[User:Jnc\|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc\|talk]]) 13:00, 30 October 2024 (CET)

			No reaction from anyone? [[User:Jnc\|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc\|talk]]) 03:26, 3 November 2024 (CET)

Jnc: /* Sourcing */ Hey, all, should we source contents more carefully?

2024-10-30T12:01:04Z

Sourcing: Hey, all, should we source contents more carefully?

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:01, 30 October 2024
Line 1:		Line 1:
	==Article naming system ==		==Article naming system==

	When I said/say "Follow naming system', I was referring to not using names of the form "DEC xxx". Although some pages are called "{organization} {thing}" (e.g. [[Interlan NI1010A/NI2010A Ethernet interface]] (which is actually slightly incorrect; Interlan called it the 'Ethernet Communications Controller'; I will have to fix that), in general I don't use 'DEC' to start page names unless either i) the rest is a common term that might be used by someone else (e.g. [[DEC Alpha]]), or ii) it is a natural part of the name (e.g. [[DEC standard power wire colour coding]]). (Yes, I know that making DEC pages special is itself inconsistent! But the page names would all be longer, if not: 'DEC PDP-10' instead of [[PDP-10]].)		When I said/say "Follow naming system', I was referring to not using names of the form "DEC xxx". Although some pages are called "{organization} {thing}" (e.g. [[Interlan NI1010A/NI2010A Ethernet interface]] (which is actually slightly incorrect; Interlan called it the 'Ethernet Communications Controller'; I will have to fix that), in general I don't use 'DEC' to start page names unless either i) the rest is a common term that might be used by someone else (e.g. [[DEC Alpha]]), or ii) it is a natural part of the name (e.g. [[DEC standard power wire colour coding]]). (Yes, I know that making DEC pages special is itself inconsistent! But the page names would all be longer, if not: 'DEC PDP-10' instead of [[PDP-10]].)

	But in general I try and follow the rule 'use what the original contemporary documentation used' - mostly because that is easy to find out, and then one does not have to think about choosing something! There are some places which fail to do that (e.g. [[KL10]] - although now that I [http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp10/KL10/EK-OKL10-TM_KL10_TechRef_Aug84.pdf look], that might be correct): [[KA11 CPU]] should be 'KA11 Processor' (because I started calling all the PDP-11 CPU pages 'xx11 CPU' - although DEC has a lack of consistency in their naming for them; e.g. they call the [[KD11-E CPU]] just [http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1134/EK-KD11E-TM-001_KD11-E_Central_Processor_Maintenance_Manual_Dec76.pdf "KD11-E"]). But I am slowly fixing many of them. [[User:Jnc\|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc\|talk]]) 13:07, 22 June 2022 (CEST)		But in general I try and follow the rule 'use what the original contemporary documentation used' - mostly because that is easy to find out, and then one does not have to think about choosing something! There are some places which fail to do that (e.g. [[KL10]] - although now that I [http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp10/KL10/EK-OKL10-TM_KL10_TechRef_Aug84.pdf look], that might be correct): [[KA11 CPU]] should be 'KA11 Processor' (because I started calling all the PDP-11 CPU pages 'xx11 CPU' - although DEC has a lack of consistency in their naming for them; e.g. they call the [[KD11-E CPU]] just [http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1134/EK-KD11E-TM-001_KD11-E_Central_Processor_Maintenance_Manual_Dec76.pdf "KD11-E"]). But I am slowly fixing many of them. [[User:Jnc\|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc\|talk]]) 13:07, 22 June 2022 (CEST)

			==Sourcing==

			Although we have historically not been as anal about noting the source of things as Wikipedia is, maybe we should be, now that I think about it? People ''do'' make mistakes (to err is human, after all), and having to trawl though several large documents (almost always given in 'Further reading'/'External links', thankfully) to verify something that might be erroneous is probably non-optimal. Careful sourcing has been a hallmark of scholarship for generations, probably for that exact reason.

			Mind, I'm not suggesting that we should make a major effort to ''go back'' and update existing content, to add sourcing - we just don't have the person-power available for such a project. I'm also not suggesting we ''mandate'' sourcing on new content. I'm just thinking like 'if you have the energy, it would be good to source new content'. Or is just listing the sources in Further reading/External links good enough?

			If we do decide we want to start sourcing, I should look and see if the Wikipedia <nowiki><ref></nowiki> system is installed here; it might not be. [[User:Jnc\|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc\|talk]]) 13:00, 30 October 2024 (CET)

Jnc: Article naming system

2023-08-17T11:48:19Z

Article naming system

New page

==Article naming system ==

When I said/say "Follow naming system', I was referring to not using names of the form "DEC xxx". Although some pages are called "{organization} {thing}" (e.g. [[Interlan NI1010A/NI2010A Ethernet interface]] (which is actually slightly incorrect; Interlan called it the 'Ethernet Communications Controller'; I will have to fix that), in general I don't use 'DEC' to start page names unless either i) the rest is a common term that might be used by someone else (e.g. [[DEC Alpha]]), or ii) it is a natural part of the name (e.g. [[DEC standard power wire colour coding]]). (Yes, I know that making DEC pages special is itself inconsistent! But the page names would all be longer, if not: 'DEC PDP-10' instead of [[PDP-10]].)

But in general I try and follow the rule 'use what the original contemporary documentation used' - mostly because that is easy to find out, and then one does not have to think about choosing something! There are some places which fail to do that (e.g. [[KL10]] - although now that I [http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp10/KL10/EK-OKL10-TM_KL10_TechRef_Aug84.pdf look], that might be correct): [[KA11 CPU]] should be 'KA11 Processor' (because I started calling all the PDP-11 CPU pages 'xx11 CPU' - although DEC has a lack of consistency in their naming for them; e.g. they call the [[KD11-E CPU]] just [http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1134/EK-KD11E-TM-001_KD11-E_Central_Processor_Maintenance_Manual_Dec76.pdf "KD11-E"]). But I am slowly fixing many of them. [[User:Jnc|Jnc]] ([[User talk:Jnc|talk]]) 13:07, 22 June 2022 (CEST)