Re: [Bug-gnupedia] General content markup

[Tom Chance]

I would have thought you'd want a server structure
that is as versatile, as compatible and as powerful as
possible. As such I'd auggest this:

A mySQL server to hold the article databse.
A seperate server to hold media such as pics + movies
A perl interpreter to handle uploads of articles etc.
An XML/HTML server to display it all.

This means that the database of articles can be really
fast. Perhaps if/when the mySQL create their own
filesystem it can be run on that to get it lightening
fast. It means the image database can also be fast and
seperate from the main database so the file size of
media doesn't slow down the actual article load speed.
A powerful tool to upload files so you can upload
text, pictures, movies, LaTex files, MathML content,
whatever you want really (just so long as people write
the cgi scripts and perl programs to interpret the
document types). And finally a very neat, efficient
and relatively low tech frontend which makes it all
accesible to pretty much everyone.

By having this reasonably complex system it ensures a
very fast, reliable setup that has scope to grow in
many different directions (as far as perl, mySQL and
XML will reach which is a veyr long way). It also
means the mirrors will be held by people with a decent
setup and time to maintain it, so the major mirrors
won't be a shambles. It will, obviously, mean
therefore that you won't get lots of people hosting
parts of it but I think thats good. It means that you
get the same 'pedia everywhere you look, not the
version for 2 weeks ago when that webmaster last
updated it (all mirrors would auto-update every 12 or
so hours of course).

Thom Chance

--- Jesse Raleigh <address@hidden> wrote: >
Wouldn't it make more sense to use XML as the markup
> language of choice all around?  Create an XML
> template for authors to use when creating there
> content, and use something like PHP to parse it on
> the front end of the website.  With the content in
> XML, someone could write a front-end program similar
> to the ones found on the CD versions of Encarta, or
> Grolier.  Basically the GNUPedia content would be
> easy to write all sorts of apps for.
> 
> Just a thought.
> 
> -Raleigh
> Racc2000
> Webmaster / Assistant Systems Administrator
> 


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