Thursday, January 05, 2006
Another Grand Experiment
OK, home from soccer (I read A Feast for Crows). The local wiki is my next big writing experiment. I decided that since I already have a wiki on my website, I would create my examples there. If you're curious,
Take a look.See, the thing is, a wiki lets you edit and create content very quickly, but because it's web based, you can hypertext. I am aware that word processors allow hypertext -- sort of. But, frankly, it's a freaking mess. Move or rename a file and you're hosed. Just awful. So I gave up on that long long ago. But've I've always wanted that drill down ability you can have with the web. I thought about creating a website to do the same thing, but a web site was just way too much work. It's really not quite the same. But a wiki! So close, maybe this is it.
The Pros
1. Hypertext. I can have a list of all my characters with specific and expanded information about a single character just a click away. And I can return easily to where I started and navigate around quite fluidly, this is just not possible with word processing files.
2. I don't need an internet connection for this.
3. No hitting the limit on the number of files that can be open.
4. More dimensions for world building. I can add pictures, graphics or whatever.
5. It's geekish cool.
The Cons
1. Well, it might turn out to be more trouble than it's worth.
2. It's not in the same physical directory structure as my other writing files, so it will have to be backed up separated. Right now, I just zip up whole directories.
Some details
I'm using
Instiki which runs on
Ruby on Rails. That means you install Rails first, then instiki. It's not quite as simple as the Instiki page implies, but it's pretty close. I already had Ruby installed, so that was easy. I'd already worked out the kinks in the installation instructions. Sidebar! Geeks cannot write documentation to save their lives. All the really important stuff gets left out because they assume a certain degree of knowledge. But I admit Instiki was about the easiest new technology I've ever taken for a test drive.
And I will be test driving it. I will report back.
