Talk:Tcl Programming

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection

A reader asked whether Programming:Tcl should be split up into several pages. Here's my reply:

Well, at some time, a splitting up of Programming:Tcl must happen. But so far, the automatic table of contents is a big advantage of letting it stay in one page.

Saved as Printable HTML, the file size is now 157 KB, which is still acceptable, considering e-books of 300..500 KB also being deployed as just one .txt or .lit file. OTOH, there are highly structured documents on the web which require quite some work of the user to save, chapter by chapter, say to an offline reading device.

As Wikimedia adds the many [edit] links in the middle, editing still feels as if one has to do with a set of short pages.

So all in all, I'd prefer to leave Programming:Tcl as one page for some while yet. It's simpler, and not really exceeding capacity limits. (I always try to get as far as I can with "underengineering", most often successful.)

For sample scripts, they might be duplicated on separate pages, without the generous commenting which is now interspersed between code blocks. But I think it isn't so uneducational to copy and paste code blocks to another file: it gives one at least a chance to take a closer look at them :) And I try to put only examples there that are less than a printed page, in pure LOC. Suchenwi 12:49, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

You may want to check Programming:Python to see how both versions: normal and printed look like and how they are organised . --Derbeth ^talk 16:29, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree that the duality of online and print version is interesting, but one thing I like better in Programming:Tcl is the detailed, hierarchical table of contents. - Suchenwi 00:27, 26 November 2005 (UTC) on cell phone :)

Would you object to the examples being split off? With the screenshots and all, they should be. Also, there's no reason why you can't have a hierarchical toc(maintaining one wouldn't be too difficult). I wouldn't say anything, except that the size of this page is getting kinda rediculous, at 266,581 bytes + images (at #3 in the longest pages list). Thanks! —Snargle 08:20, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

I agree, but don't know how to go about it... I have started to pull out the example chapters. Now how to get them back into the TOC? (Right now they appear behind it) Suchenwi 17:55, 20 December 2005 (UTC) - never mind, I basically found out :) Suchenwi 18:46, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

A new worry comes up: I split the book into chapters now, and keep adding content to those. However, the print version seems not to reflect these changes - am I doing something wrong? Suchenwi 15:37, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Why would it? It's not a mediawiki feature or anything, so it would need to be done manually. I wouldn't be so concerned with people wanting to print this book, since it's only got 7 or so modules. Snargle 03:33, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, I at least like to print it out (124 pages last time, 4 per sheet) for proof-reading. I was assuming that the {{:<name>}} syntax in the "Print version page" was including <name> in its current state... Suchenwi 11:39, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Update: print version is upper-to-date than when I last looked at work. Must have been a case of over-eager browser caching. Suchenwi 12:28, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

This 'External Link' seems like a hidden advert? --FairPhyllis 12:46, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks - in my view you are correct and I have taken it out (as it was about web hosting rather than the actual topic --Herby ^{talk thyme} 12:50, 1 January 2007 (UTC)