[R-wiki] Bilan & TODOs

[Drew]

Philippe, thanks again for keeping this list
organized.

I have a suggestion for a wiki plugin. Although I do
not have the
programming skills to create such a plugin myself I
will share it with this
list to see what others think. If others think it is
worth doing (or at
least possible) then one or more of us can persue the
idea further.

In a nutshell, the plugin/functionality I propose
would allow registered
users (of the wiki) to create a personal code library
for themselves. (Note:
I use the word code here to refer to any R functions,
scripts, data files,
tips, etc. in general that the user finds useful.)
Users store their
personal R code library on their hard drive in text
files organized in a
directory structure that matches the structure of the
public code library
that will be developed on the R wiki. When user logs
onto the wiki, the R
wiki script/plugin collates user's personal code with
the public code
library on the wiki. In a single browser window, the
user sees both the
public code from the wiki and their personal code
stored on their hard
drive. When the user wants to share their personal
code, they can click a
button in their browser window which will make the
code a permenant part of
the wiki.

Rationale for such a plugin: How many of us have R
code laying around in
various project folders that could be better used if
it was easier to find?
How many of us have "borrowed" someone's code,
modified it to to suit our
needs, then developed and refined the code (e.g. a
function) over time to
the point where it may now be useful to others? Such a
feature of the wiki
would allow users to share code more easily, but also
increase productivity
because now every R user (beginners - advanced
experts) has easy access to
the code he/she needs on a daily basis to get work
done.

Once again, I have no programming skills outside of R
so I don't know if
what I propose is possible. I realize there is lots of
details to such a
proposal, and I don't pretend to know any of how this
would work (if it is
even possible). I only share my idea because it has
been a desire of mine
for so long to have an easy to use, browsable code
library that I can refer
to daily. I would think that others would like such a
feature. If the R wiki
can make the use of R easier and save time and energy,
then I think such a
feature would greatly increase the value of R and the
wiki.

. . .  just my two cents.

~Nick


-----Original Message-----
From: r-sig-wiki-bounces at r-project.org
[mailto:r-sig-wiki-bounces at r-project.org]On Behalf Of
Philippe Grosjean
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2006 5:09 AM
To: r-sig-wiki at r-project.org
Subject: [R-wiki] Bilan & TODOs


Hello,

My goal is still to release the R Wiki around the end
of February.
We already made many progresses. Thanks to those who
contribute!

We now have a Wiki engine that begins to be tailored
for R content (with
R code syntax highlighting, R function calltips, an
embryo of context
sensitive help for R functions, and several other nice
stuff). However,
there is still much work to do. Here is the list:

- Refine and test the proposed structure.

- Import pages from Detlef Steuer's R Wiki.

- Import Paul Johnson's 'Rtips' into the Wiki.

- Import James Wettenhall's 'R tcltk examples' in the
Wiki.

- Import Vincent Zoonekynd's 'Statistics with R' in
the Wiki.

- Adapt the Rdconv perl script to write Wiki pages
from .Rd files (Wiki
format of the R man pages).

- Automate exportation of all .Rd pages from CRAN and
Bioconductor and
generate a 'Rindex.conf' file that maps functions
names (and methods for
generic functions) to corresponding man pages.

- Implement a discussion plugin to allow adding
comments to these man
pages (this would be a much better mechanism as the
INCLUDE solution
currently in test).

- Create a 'rhelp.php' script that, given the name of
a R function,
extracts the corresponding man page from 'Rindex.conf'
and redirects to
that page.

- Create a 'calltip' plugin, derived from 'acronym'
for inclusion of R
functions calltips in the wiki pages.

- Make an R exportation format of Wiki pages (indeed,
all Wiki stuff is
just commented out with "#", and the R code appears in
a way it can be
directly sourced in R. This should use the scheme
doku.php?do=export_R,
as there is already doku.php?do=export_XHTML for
instance.

- Enable line numbering in code blocks (a GeSHi
feature, and it eases
discussion of the code in the page)

- Add legend to tables/figures/code block, number them
and allow for a
reference to them (use bookmarks)

- Add a bookmark mechanism for (bibtex) citations too
(+ direct link to
Amazon for instance).

- Create a RWiki package containing all the R
functions required to
manage the wiki, plus a stand-alone version of the
wiki engine.

- Add sidebars with cleared table of contents for
major pages.

- Make a plugin that exports one or several pages
compiled into a PDF
manual.

- Eliminate the buggy 'text color' plugin and add a
better one. Also, I
would like to propose plugins for better alternative
syntaxes like
^^...^^ for superscript in place of <sup>...</sup>,
,,...,, for
subscript in place of <sub>...</sub>, for instance
(the alternative
syntax is found in other wiki engines).

- If someone think that another Wiki engine than
DokuWiki is more
suitable for the R Wiki, I am glad to consider its
proposal, but ** (1)
he must implement all this in the alternate Wiki
engine, (2) he must
install the prototype Wiki under the alternate engine
somewhere for
trial, and (3) he must argument and demonstrate
(including benchmark for
speed and load support) that the alternate Wiki engine
is better.

I put this list on the Wiki at:
http://www.sciviews.org/_rgui/wiki/doku.php?id=varia:todo.
I would greatly appreciate help in these tasks. If you
want to work on
one item, please, notify it in that Wiki page, so that
we keep organized
and synchronized.
Best,

Philippe Grosjean
--
..............................................<°}))><........
  ) ) ) ) )
( ( ( ( (    Prof. Philippe Grosjean
  ) ) ) ) )
( ( ( ( (    Numerical Ecology of Aquatic Systems
  ) ) ) ) )   Mons-Hainaut University, Pentagone
(3D08)
( ( ( ( (    Academie Universitaire Wallonie-Bruxelles
  ) ) ) ) )   8, av du Champ de Mars, 7000 Mons,
Belgium
( ( ( ( (
  ) ) ) ) )   phone: + 32.65.37.34.97, fax: +
32.65.37.30.54
( ( ( ( (    email: Philippe.Grosjean at umh.ac.be
  ) ) ) ) )
( ( ( ( (    web:   http://www.umh.ac.be/~econum
  ) ) ) ) )          http://www.sciviews.org
( ( ( ( (
..............................................................

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