Whatever solution you all end up with, I imagine you could also upload a dump or backup of the wiki contents to IFArchive for safekeeping, if you haven’t already.
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I was definitively NOT aware. Thanks !
So, we also have already the adv3Lite counterpart of JN’s Adv3 wiki, and with a very similiar structure from git wiki.
agree on the roughly obsolescence of the Tour Guide, but I think that having a “rosetta stone” is helpful (I pondered a full fortnight in deciding if shifting isekai dev from adv3 to a3lite was worth the effort, and a good chunk of this process was finding then comparing the differences between the two libraries…) so having a full worked example written in both libraries is something useful to keep in mind.
(BTW, I’m also in the first phase of the spring work, which included choosing the best language and library for the story; and is where the lack of practical, comprehensive means of comparision between adv3 and a3Lite is felt)
The idea of a cookbook has an advantage re. the comparision issue, because one can put both recipes, adv3 and adv3Lite, for the same coding problem.
Lastly, I concur with bg, on backing up in the IF Archive.
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
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You could try comparing the opening sections of the Airport game implementation in the adv3Lite tutorial with the adv3 implementation of the same game at IF Design: In Practice. I haven’t done a detailed comparison to check, but the adv3Lite tutorial example is based on MJR’s example, so it should give some indication of how the two libraries differ in implementing similar things.
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Yep I am! It’s helpful for starting out for sure! I just want to consolidate everything 
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Maybe a good first step would be to expand on the existing content of TADS 3 - IFWiki, in particular the “Links” section.
Alternatively, you could create a wiki page here along the lines of Inform 7 documentation and resources.
@pieartsy If I had a parallel life I’d love to pour lots of time into this, but at the moment I’m afraid there are too many demands on me from other sectors. The main reason I was able to get my TADbits articles out a little while back was because of a string of sicknesses and back injuries 
If you all arrive at some kind of plan and there is a list of tasks to be undertaken, I might take a peek and see if there’s something I can chip in…
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So, you guys are envisioning something similar to Jon Blask’s old Hugo By Example page, or something more large scope-wise. Well, I wish y’all the best. Maybe I’ll be able to contribute at some point, maybe after the holidays or something.
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Coming to the convo late, but for my money, Jim’s Cookbook-as-Wiki is the idea that most resonates for me. It or something like it seems a natural fit for JZ’s TADBITS, jbg’s deep library additions, or even some infrequent Pattern postings I and others feel compelled to put out there. ORGANIZING such a beast is of course the first barrier. For my own part, it is the only documentation resource I periodically yearn for, the rest of the suite being what it is.
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Since I probably know less about TADS than anyone on this thread, I’m probably in the target audience. And I enthusiastically support the wiki idea.
TADS seems pretty neat, and I have dabbled in it every so often through the years. What has discouraged me is despite how powerful TADS is, it seems outdated and dead, based on its official pages. (I don’t think this is true anymore, but this is the impression of an outsider looking in.)
And do I use adv3 or adv3lite? Are the Eric Eve books the only way to learn? Should I use the old Workbench program or try to figure out how to get TADS working in VS Code? How do I set things up in Windows or Unix, exactly?
And the more I looked into it, the more I realized that information on TADS was out there, but it was scattered.TADS seems like the best-kept secret in the IF community because no one source has the entire message.
Since you can’t build this in a day, I’d say to start out small and beginner-focused and gradually branch out. Even with a simple page with links to learning resources and a quickstart guide would be helpful. It doesn’t have to be elaborate at first.
It looks like there are lots of articles on more advanced topics already written, and I know I would use them. But I think highlighting resources and articles for beginners should be a focus for a wiki like this, at least at first.
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Do you think that it should be a wiki proper (with anonymous edit abilities and several articles) or is a normal site with the quickstart and links to resources, that can still be updated by other knowledgeable people via GitHub, fine for your purposes? Or do you not have a preference as long as the beginner materials are there?
If you don’t have a strong preference (I’m prioritizing your opinion slightly since it seems you are even more newbie than I am (which is saying something!) (also curious what @cfmoorz2 thinks as another newb!) then I think this is my initial plan in rough steps:
- Fork @jnelson’s repository (to offload the effort from him for pull requests/maintenance) and put it in the TADS collective GitHub (@Dannii how do I join that?)
- Create a basic static site landing page that has every single existing resource mentioned here as links and, if possible, hosted (peripluses, bookshelves, Eric’s github wiki/resources for adv3lite, the IFWiki, the cookbook etc etc)
- Put the simplest stuff first, and of course have everything in separate sections (adv3, adv3lite, and pure TADS) – in all other respects it’s probably gonna be a link dump.
- for the things that are possible to add a search bar to (namely the hosted websites like the tutorials and peripluses), add a search bar!!
- Tidy the link dump as best I can and add basic pitch of TADS 3 + beginner resources to static site landing page
- me, @alexispurslane, and @inventor200 were already working on that as aforementioned, so it shouldn’t be too hard if I have permission from yall to use that copy and code? If not this can wait and I’ll stop at step 3.
And I’ll stop there for now! The further stuff like organizing things to be more shiny on the website, adding new documentation, etc, I’ll ask yall for help on and hopefully receive some!
I think I’ll probs cancel the tads3 wiki domain since this seems to be drifting away from a proper wiki. But it was $3 so that’s alright! I’ll just have a github pages URL (which hopefully should be nicer due to being in the collective repository?) and get a real domain if this gets off the ground.
How’s that sound, everyone?
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I’m fine with it. Sorry for bouncing out on the project, my disability makes it hard to be consistent with things. Also I don’t think joey wants to talk to me anymore lol
I get it, no worries, just wanted to get your permission re the copy/existing code!
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Yeah consider everything I ever write or do CC-BY-SA or GPL lol. I think honestly our website does basically all of this already, some of the formatting of the docs is just wonky.
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Yeah I think we got stuck on trying to update the tutorials etc to markdown for Jekyll which got them wonked (I think that was my suggestion so if so, my bad!), so here I’m just starting with a link to existing stuff only haha.
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Yeah just linking them is the best plan.
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The other question is then how people will know how to look for/find this resource. It would be good if we could have a sticky post in this forum that points to it, if anyone knows how that could be arranged.
The obvious place people might start out from is www.tads.org, which we can’t update. It does, however, contain a link to my TADS 3 RESOURCES page, which I could update to link to this new resource, which might help direct people to it. Note that my TADS 3 resources page won’t last forever, since it’s hosted on my university’s server, and at some point the university will probably decide I’m not entitled to keep it there any longer, but it should be good for the next few years or so.
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I think IFWiki (and the IF archive as well, just in case) are good spots too, as well as on this forum.
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My preference would be a landing page with links to resources and helpful articles for beginners, but make it easy and clear for others to contribute articles (about beginner or advanced topics) – whether it’s in a wiki or pushing changes to a repository. I’m guessing many TADS experts would be happy to share their knowledge but don’t want to bother setting up their own website to do that, especially when there are only a few topics they would want to weigh in on.
The problem with the way things have been done in the past with TADS is that the resources depend on one or two people, and what happens when they lose interest or life happens? Having as many people contribute as possible is probably the key to success here.
And regardless of what you decide as you set this up, I’m very grateful for you and others on this thread for putting this resource together!! Things will definitely be better than they have been!
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@RealNC Looks like the TADS Intfic collective on GitHub is owned by you, can I join it and make a repo there? :0c
I’m the owner actually. What’s your GitHub username?
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