Wikibooks:Reading room/Archives/2008/September

breathing life back into the ICON programming book
and giving life to a new book on UNICON programming My other interest is the book on Curl programming
 * Great to see someone taking an interest in Icon Programming. I've suggested that the page be split up into subpages. If you need help to do this, feel free to come back here, or ask on my talk page. When leaving a message on discussion pages such as this one, please end your message with four tildes; this leaves a signature (customizable in Special:Preferences) and timestamp, making conversations easier to follow. So ~ turns into this &rarr; &mdash; Mike.lifeguard &#124; talk 23:59, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Mornin' everyone
Having been invited to this wonderful project by user:Red4tribe, here I am. Don't know whether I'll be of any help to you all, but I'll try to make it. Galoubet (talk) 06:58, 7 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Welcome to wikibooks! You don't need to worry about being helpful to us, you should just make sure you are having fun and doing work that you find interesting. We're always happy to see new authors, editors, illustrators, managers, administrators and organizers here. Find the niche that you like the best and have a blast. Let us know if you have any questions, and good luck! --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 23:44, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Appropriate/legal use? ...
I have several binders full of professors notes and explanations on such engineering/physics/mathematics topics as Continuum Mechanics or Intermediate Fluid Mechanics. These notes are likely complete enough to make the core of a wikibook. They are hand written notes for each class's lecture. As far as I can tell they were never copyrighted or published. On the other hand, they are not my works...

Is transcribing this material to wiki appropriate, ethical, and legal use of the unpublished works my professors handed out?

Drew
 * Unfortunately class notes are a tricky subject. My current understanding is that a transcript of the class is copyrighted to the professor if there was prior fixation (which is almost always the case); class notes (though not necessarily exact transcripts) would fall under the same umbrella. Even though the student took notes, they do not own the copyright on them, since they are a derivative work of the original work of the professor. That said, notes can (and should) serve as an excellent resource for deciding upon the structure, scope etc of a textbook, so they are of course not useless. I would invite you to contribute in that way instead. &mdash; Mike.lifeguard &#124; talk 01:37, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Hmmm... by your reply I don't think I explained my material clearly. The notes were written by the prof. These hand written explanations were photo copied by the prof and distributed in class. They were never formed into a "published" work (in the sense of a textbook sold for a often hefty profit). But even with this clarification, my guess is your reply will be nearly the same, since they would then be an original work of the professor. That is unfortunate since it precludes a quick win for wikibooks. Thanks for the quick reply!
 * Drew
 * Unfortunately, that doesn't change anything. The prof has clearly fixated the work then, and owns the copyright. If they choose to give it out that doesn't mean they have relinquished the copyright. Barring a statement that the work is GFDL-licensed (or otherwise GFDL-compatible), it would violate Copyrights to include it here. Again, the work can guide you in creating original work though. &mdash; Mike.lifeguard &#124; talk 01:57, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Poem Tags for Code Listings
I expect that I am the very last person to realise this, but the   tags aren't too bad for code listings, even with long code lines; i.e. Wikitext.

On the three browsers that I have quickly tried, IE6. Firefox 2.? and Opera 9 the tags preserve newline preformats but the extra space between words, ect, is still Wiki parsed. However, long lines are automatically wrapped, and that is good for coding. The poem tags can be styled and because of their cross browser functioning might be a good basis for a code-listing template. Or is that something else in the best kept secret department? Does one already exist?

For better punctuation spacing however, I might still have to wait until there is browser compatibility for 'pre-wrap'. (See the Template:Prewrap of the same name, where such a template's use with the white-space's pre-wrap value would come close to word-processor behaviour).

The poem tags produce left-aligned page-default listings. Does anybody know where the style details can be found for these tags? Regards to all, Armchair (talk) 11:01, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

there is a whole list of languages that we can use this to do source code highlighting on. These are just two examples. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 15:26, 12 August 2008 (UTC)
 * You might find the


 * Hi Darklama and Whiteknight!  Thanks for the source tag input.   The penny has finally dropped:  Use of line numbering with source tags allows long-line wrapping while preserving other white space!   Is there any way to get this result without the numbers?   Armchair (talk) 16:37, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

TeX\bye
Can anyone explain to me why I don't get an automatic link back to the TeX page on this page? Cheers --AdRiley (talk) 09:17, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
 * It's very simple, backslash \ character is something completely different than slash / character. --> Talk:TeX. --Derbeth talk 09:24, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Hello!!
Hi everyone! My name is Linda. I'm new to Wikibook and I'm a little nervous, but I'm going to be brave and have fun with this!!
 * Hi there. Glad to see a new face. Remember, this is a wiki, so you can't do any permanent damage - be bold in making changes. When leaving comments on discussion pages such as this, if you end the message with four tildes ~, it will leave a signature and timestamp. This makes it easy to see who said what, and when, so conversations are easier to follow. You can customize the signature in Special:Preferences. &mdash; Mike.lifeguard &#124; talk 23:56, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Hi Mike, Sorry, I forgot to sign my name, so I thought I would be bold and give it another try! Thanks for the reminder.--Lburn008 (talk) 00:22, 19 September 2008 (UTC)
 * It's okay, signing your name with the ~ will become like second nature to you after a while. I've sent off a few emails with ~ at the end instead of my signature out of habit, and that's always a little embarrasing! --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 18:57, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

MS-Excel Pivot Table
Dear Frends

How are you? I need help regarding MS-Excel Pivot Table. Is there anyone expert in Pivot Table? If yes please contact me at mba.sonal@gmail.com.

Regards Sonal

Frends

How to so some special changes in Pivot table. The functions which have mentioned in Excel are not enough to edit the Pivot table report. Kindly suggest me.

--Sonal patel (talk) 11:19, 16 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't think this is a good place to be asking that question, sorry. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 18:16, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Page Hit Data
I've just been alerted to a project that compiles page hit statistics based on the squid log data for the Wikimedia server farm. Here is a link that should refresh daily/monthly:

http://wikistics.falsikon.de/latest/wikibooks/en/

The previous page hit counter data that we were using was statistical in nature and was activated with javascript. These statistics come directly from the raw server logs, so they should be more accurate in some respects (but there are still a few problems worth being aware of). Check this link to see how en.wikibooks compares to other wikis:

http://wikistics.falsikon.de/latest/

According to this, we get about 430,000 page hits per day on average, which makes us the 28th most viewed wiki in the WMF. In June we were actually higher with 451,000 hits per day average, and 27th overall. See also the main page for more information, more months worth of records, and FAQs:

http://wikistics.falsikon.de

I hope people learn a lot from all this! --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 21:13, 27 August 2008 (UTC)


 * By the way, you actually can remove the obsolete function pgcounter_setup section from MediaWiki:Common.js, as WikiCharts has been defunct (long time ago). --- Best regards, Melancholie (talk) 22:20, 7 September 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ &mdash; Mike.lifeguard &#124; talk 22:32, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Wikibooks Blog
For anybody who doesn't know, I operate a blog dedicated to news about Wikibooks:

http://wikibooks.blogspot.com/

In addition to "big" news stories, I've been trying to post lots of small vignettes highlighting some of our active books and editors. I tend to compile these from observations I made on our RC feed. Unfortunately, this means if people edit books when I'm not looking, they won't get featured.

I'm looking for a two things:
 * 1) People to tell me about cool projects or active editors that I miss
 * 2) Volunteers who would be interested in writing news and updates for the blog (either by submission to me, or by becoming an editor to the blog itself)

This blog is aggregated in a few places, notably planet Wikimedia and a few other open-education aggregators that I've seen. Comment volume is relatively low (read: zero) right now, but I hope we will be able to attract more interest from readers in the future. Let me know if anybody is interested in helping out. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 21:47, 28 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I accidently ran across it a couple of days ago and found myself mentioned in it. Makes me feel important. Thanks.-Red4tribe (talk) 02:59, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

a problematic page
What should be done about Genealogy/Online options? It seems to just be some information about a person and has nothing to do with the subject of the book as far as I could determine. Should it be tagged for speedy deletion or sent to WB:VFD (if it needs to be deleted at all that is)? Icewedge (talk) 23:08, 20 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Nice catch, I deleted the page because it contained personal information and doesn't really fit into the book. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 23:25, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Ancient Mayan Building
Due to countless suggestions as to the unique nature of the awkward assembly of large rocks cut into precision yet non symetrical shaped blocks with regards to building walls,etc in Mayan times,I would like to submit a theory (Toms' Theory). This technique of cutting and fitting large stones in such a time consuming manner must have been done for a reason such as this civilisation living on a plain that regularly experienced earhtquakes. Could these blocks have been fitted in such an interlocking manner as to withstand these natural disasters more effectively than "normal" building methods? 17:26, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Zapotec Isthmus
Can anybody help me write a conversational zapotec book? I speak the language.

Can anyone help me to create an article on the Bible trasnslation of the "Sacred Scriptures Bethel Edition". It's a puzzlement there isn't already an article. Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 01:42, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Proposal to Remove Grandfathering Provision From Naming Policy
I have raised a proposal for the above at Wikibooks_talk:Naming_policy and would welcome the communities' comments. Thanks. --AdRiley (talk) 13:08, 10 September 2008 (UTC)


 * This is a great Idea, I think. I'll take a good look at it and leave comments as necessary. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 01:42, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Featured Books
I would like to get some Wikibookians to go take a look at WB:FBN sometime soon. That page doesn't get a lot of traffic, and there are some proposals on there that have been open for a long time. Thanks. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 19:38, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
 * 1) Zine Making This book is short but the nomination is pretty well supported. I'll close this one as "Done" later tonight, unless people post complaints.
 * 2) x86 Disassembly This is a good book, but I'm partial since I wrote most of it! I shouldn't be the one to close this nomination since I'm the major author and I nominated it. If we could get maybe one or two more votes, or if somebody else would be willing to close it, that would be great.
 * 3) Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter This book was nominated over a month ago, and today received it's first vote. This is a really good book, and I hope most people agree enough to support this nomination.

On Training Best Practices
I've been patrolling some of the pages of this work and I can't make head or tails of it, some seem part of chat sessions (as someone posting his opinion on something but without no valid content or references), I have marked some for deletion as some are clearly publicity stunts and I was strongly inclined to propose the book for VfD but I may be missing something and the objectives and at least the stated history of this project seems something we should give incentive, it can be a case that Wikibooks is just not the place for it, or it has all taken a bad turn... PS:Is it about Scientology or some sort of new age fait ?!? --Panic (talk) 05:32, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Fundamentals of Physics
Hello Wikians,

I have started a book called Fundamentals of Physics, which is based on a book with a same title ( http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=index&itemId=0471320005&bcsId=1074 ). It will have same chapters like the original but with text written by wikians and image created by fellow wikian as well.

Can this book be deleted because it uses a borrowed tile and chapter headings? I am willing to spend lot of work to bring content of a excellent book to the open world ( the content will not be a exact copy). Could some one sue me of following the original books structure?

Regards

A.K.Karthikeyan


 * As you say, the current book should be deleted. The book would need to be non-copyright work or work that the original authors have released fully.


 * A study guide is very suitable for Wikibooks and already exists as Physics Study Guide. There are also Introduction to Physical Science, FHSST_Physics and the Modern Physics set of books.  There is always room for another physics book but it is possible that someone will merge it with another book if this seems like an objective decision and is supported by other Wikibookians.


 * If you can see how your book would fit in to the current range it would be much less likely to suffer the charge of plagiarism because it would be defensible as an inevitable completion of the jigsaw of Wikibooks' coverage of physics. RobinH (talk) 09:08, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Spanish - English Dictionary for Beginners
Hello. At s:Wikisource:Proposed deletions/Archives/2008-09, something potentially useful for this project (which I've not familiar with) was deleted. A blurb of it is quoted below; "Much work has gone into this dictionary and hopefully the reader will find it useful. The dictionary is mainly intended for English speakers needing an online dictionary for Spanish, but will hardly be fit to use as a definitive source on the Spanish Language. The dictionary is lacking many important words. Right now it contains 19,500 entries, less than 14,000 words, and many duplicates and unnecessary technical terms. There are almost no reflexive verbs, nor are local variations included. The listings are alphabetized according to the English alphabet. Readers looking for los calzones will find that calzones cannot be found before hitting la calle." If this is the sort of thing you would like on Wikibooks, please leave a note on my Wikisource talk page and I'll pass on the content. It's licensed CC-BY-SA-3.0. Cheers, Giggy (talk) 07:01, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately cc-by-sa isn't GFDL-compatible, making it ineligible for inclusion here as well. Only Wikinews is not GFDL-licensed (media excepted). &mdash; Mike.lifeguard &#124; talk 14:24, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

How to link to audio files?
Now that is an easy question, right? OK, I've used this:

and was quite happy with it, except that you cannot play audio files right from the page with this, instead your browser has to know what to do with .ogg files. Thus, on WikiMedia Commons you often see these grey bars with the blue play button to play audio files. To get this grey bars I'm now using:

Is this OK? Is there any template that already includes this grey button? --Martin Kraus (talk) 18:23, 22 September 2008 (UTC)


 * No template, that grey button is the default behavior when you type [[Image:Air (Bach).ogg]] :
 * [[Image:Air (Bach).ogg]]
 * With that tag, you can create your own template to do what you want. Let us know if you need any more help then that. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 00:14, 23 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks! --Martin Kraus (talk) 09:07, 23 September 2008 (UTC)