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A Wiki or wiki (pronounced "wicky" or "weekee", see pronunciation section below) is a website (or other hypertext document collection) that allows a user to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows that content to be edited by anybody.
The term Wiki can also refer to the collaborative software used to create such a website (see Wiki software).
Wiki (with a capital 'W') and WikiWikiWeb are sometimes used to refer specifically to the Portland Pattern Repository, the first ever wiki. Advocates of this usage suggest using a lower-case 'w' for wikis in general. Wiki wiki comes from the Hawaiian term for "quick" or "super-fast."
Sometimes wikiwiki or WikiWiki are used instead of wiki.
In English-speaking countries wiki is pronounced "wicky" or "weekee". The pronunciation naturally varies according to the speaker's language; common pronunciations are "viki" or "veekee".
A wiki enables documents to be written collectively in a simple markup language using a web browser. A single page in a wiki is referred to as a "wiki page," while the entire body of pages, which are usually highly interconnected via hyperlinks, is called "the wiki."
A defining characteristic of wiki technology is the ease with which pages can be created and updated. Generally, there is no review before modifications are accepted, and most wikis are open to the general public — or at least anyone who has access to the wiki server. In fact, even registration of a user account is not always required.
In traditional wikis, there are three representations for each page: the HTML code, the webpage resulting from rendering that code by a web browser, and the user-editable source code, from which the server produces the HTML. The latter format, known as "wikitext", is written in a simplified markup language whose style and syntax can vary among implementations.
The reasoning behind this design is that the "HTML", with its large library of nested tags, is too complicated to allow fast-paced editing, and distracts from the actual content of the pages. It is also sometimes viewed as beneficial that users cannot use all the functionality that HTML allows, such as JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets, because of the consistency in look and feel that is thereby enforced.
| Wiki syntax ( MediaWikiMediaWiki is a Wiki software licensed under the GNU General Public License. It is written in PHP and uses an underlying MySQL relational database. MediaWiki was originally written for Wikipedia by. The site previously used UseModWiki (aka "Phase I"), and) | HTML | Rendered output |
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"Doctor? No other title? A scholar? And he rates above the civil authority?"
"Why, certainly," replied Hardin, amiably. "We're all scholars more or less. After all, we're not so much a world as a scientific foundation – under the direct control of the Emperor." | "Doctor? No other title? A scholar? And he rates above the civil authority?"
"Why, certainly," replied Hardin, amiably. "We're all scholars more or less. After all, we're not so much a world as a scientific foundation – under the direct control of the Emperor." |
(Quotation from FoundationFoundation is the first book in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy (later expanded into The Foundation Series). It is a collection of five short stories which were first published together as a book by Gnome Press in 1951. Four of the stories were original by Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 April 6, 1992) was a Russian-born American author and biochemist, a highly successful and exceptionally prolific writer best known for his works of science fiction and for his science books for the lay person. He also wrot)
Some recent wiki engines use a different method: they provide " WYSIWYGWYSIWYG (pronounced "wizzy-wig") is an acronym for W hat Y ou S ee I s W hat Y ou G et, and is used in computing to refer to the technology that makes sure the image seen on the screen corresponds to what is printed out on paper. Today this is expected fo" editing, usually by means of an ActiveX control or pluginA plugin (or plug-in is a computer program that can, or must, interact with another program to provide a certain, usually very specific, function. Typical examples are plugins to display specific graphic formats (e. SVG if the browser doesn´t include this that translates graphically entered formatting instructions such as "bold" and "italics" into the corresponding HTML tags. In these implementations, saving an edit amounts to submitting a new HTML version of the page to the server, although the user is shielded from this technical detail as the markup is generated transparentlyIn human-computer interaction, computer transparency is an aspect of user friendliness which prevents the user from worrying about technical details (like installation, updating, downloading or device drivers). For instance, a program that automatically d. Users who do not have the necessary plugin can typically still edit the page, usually by directly editing the raw HTML code.
The formatting instructions allowed by a wiki vary considerably depending on the wiki engine that is used. Simple wikis only allow basic text formatting, whereas more complex ones have support for tables, images, formulas, or even interactive elements such as polls and games. Because of this, there is now an effort underway to define a Wiki Markup Standard.