How to edit

Before you start

In order to edit the riscos.info wiki, you will need to log in. Before you can log in, you must first create an account. This is a simple process – just go to the Login page and enter the relevant details. Having created an account and logged in, you can then make whatever changes you please throughout most of the wiki. (There are a few sections where only trusted users with greater privileges can make changes.)

Be warned that after a certain amount of inactivity, you will automatically be logged out again. The cutoff is approximately an hour. If you are making anything more than trivial changes, it is better to write them in an external text editor, then cut-and-paste them into place. This reduces the risk that you will lose your work.

How to edit a Wiki

NB: This is meant as a getting started guide to wiki editing. For a complete list of commands, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing

• Every page will have at least one blue Edit link in a tab at the top of the page (with the exception of certain locked pages).
• Clicking this button when logged in takes you to the editing page

Once at the Editing page, you'll need to know about the format of Wikis.

Generally, everything is designed to be straightforward. riscos.info uses the same MediaWiki software as Wikipedia, so more information can be found reading the MediaWiki Handbook.

Formatting

Normal text only needs to be typed.

A single new line doesn't create a break.

An empty line starts a new paragraph.

• Lines starting with * create lists. Multiple *s nest the list
• You can use apostrophes to add emphasis
  • ''some text'' will be italicised: some text
  • '''some more text''' will be bold: some more text
  • 5 apostrophes are bold and italicised
• Sections are marked with the = symbol
  • == Main Heading ==
  • === Sub-heading ===
  • ==== Smaller sub-heading ====
• NB: HTML emphasis can be used too

Linking

To link to another article in the wiki, eg: RISC OS, simply type [[Page name here]]

To link to a URL, either type the URL: http://riscos.com or to change how it appears: [http://riscos.com Text to appear] gives Text to appear

If you link to a page that doesn't exist, following the link will enable you to edit, and thus create the page: A page that doesn't exist.

If you wanted to link to a page X, but display Y, you would use a piped link: [[RISC OS|Front page]] gives Front page

General Advice

The front page has several categories listed on it. While this list can grow, if your article can fit in one of these categories, then go to the category page in question and add a link to it.

When creating a new page, make use of the Preview button to avoid filling up the change log with lots of revisions to your new article and always include some information in the 'Summary' box to help others see what's happened in the change log.

If you think a page should exist, but you don't have time to create it, link to it anyway. People are far more likely to fill in blanks if they can just follow a link than if they have to edit links all over the place.

Above all, keep it factual, professional and clean. If you don't, you are liable to be banned from further contribution, and someone will fix your errors anyway! As the disclaimer says: 'If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, then don't submit it here.' Wikipedia is proof that the idea works, and works well.

Brief Style Guide

This subsection gives a brief summary of the style conventions suggested for use throughout the wiki.

• Terms which are particularly important to an entry should have links provided. Terms of only minor relevance should not be linked. It is only necessary to provide a link the first time a related term is used, not every time it appears. Additional links may still be added in longer entries and in any other cases where readers are likely to find it helpful.

• Write out unusual abbreviations in full the first time they are used within each article, and then give the abbreviation within parentheses. (For example: 'Programmer's Reference Manual (PRM)'.) Thereafter, use the abbreviation without further comment. In 'general' articles, the threshold for what is considered an unusual abbreviation will be lower than in 'technical' articles.

• When linking to a compound term include the full term inside the link (rather than part of the term inside the link, part outside) and if necessary use the pipe ('|') symbol to provide more suitable alternative text. For example, use "Martin Wuerthner's applications include …" rather than "Martin Wuerthner's applications include …"

• As far as possible use the Wiki codes for bold, italic, lists, etc. rather than inserting HTML markup.

• Use single quotes in preference to double quotes except when quoting a person's actual words.

• Write single-digit numbers in words, numbers of 13 or more as numbers. The numbers 10-12 represent a grey area where either convention may be used as seems appropriate. Number ranges and numbers with decimal fractions should always be written as numbers.

• Use HTML glyphs for specialist symbols. Do not forget the trailing semicolon – while most browsers will still display the glyph even if the semicolon is missing, this is not guaranteed to work reliably. Of the sample glyphs given, the ampersand, quotes, and the less than and greater than symbols are the least critical, because the Wiki software will usually automatically alter them to the correct forms. A Google search for HTML glyphs gives several useful summaries. Some commonly-used glyphs are given below:
  • ampersand : & : &
  • dashes : — – : — –
  • double quotes : " : "
  • ellipsis : … : …
  • hard space :   :  
  • less than, greater than : < > : &lt; &gt;
  • pound : £ : &pound;
  • superscripts : ² ³ : &sup2; &sup3;

• Avoid contractions (it's, doesn't) and exclamations.

• When giving a list of items, provide the entries in ascending alphabetical order unless there is some other more compelling sequence.

• When leaving comments on discussion pages, sign them with four tildes – ~~~~. This adds your user name and the time and date.

• In general, the desired tone for the RISC OS wiki is similar to that of a RISC OS magazine. However, highly technical articles should be written to have the same tone and style as the entries in the RISC OS Programmers' Reference Manuals (PRMs).

Templates

Templates allow information to be displayed in the same format on different, related, pages (such as the info box on this Wikipedia page), or to link together related articles (such as the box on this page).

See a Getting Started HOWTO. Or try editing a Wikipedia template to see the source for an existing example.

Moderating Others' Work

If you spot a mistake in someone else's work, correct it, but make a note in the 'Summary' box stating the reason for the change, eg: Fixed speeling mistooks.

If you feel you can add useful information to an existing page, then add it. If you feel something should be removed, remove it, but state why in the 'Summary' box. If it's a point of contention, use the article discussion link at the top of every page to start a talk about it. Make sure you sign points you raise on the discussion pages by typing ~~~~.

Before removing or making significant changes to someone else's contribution, consider the guidance on "reverting" from wikimedia.