[dokuwiki] Re: Selecting a Wiki engine...
- From: Chris Smith <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: dokuwiki@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2006 10:03:50 +0100
Oliver Betz wrote:
For example about data storage: While PmWiki stores page data,
metadata and old revisions in the same file, DokuWiki uses separate
files. I would like to learn more about the reasons behind and the
(dis-) advantages.
Hi Oliver,
Let me try and give some explanation on this point.
In summary:
Advantages:
- raw wiki pages are uncomplicated by extra data and are usable on their own
- speed
- simplicity of access routines
Disadvantages
- larger disk space requirement on older, inefficient file systems (e.g.
FAT, FAT32)
Raw DokuWiki pages can be read as plain text files. The raw pages are
the underlying "articles" on which your wiki is based. Nothing is added
to those text files by DokuWiki - they are exactly what the author(s)
typed in. Open a raw wiki text file in a text editor and print it out,
the page should make sense and be easily readable - especially if the
majority of your syntax is core dokuwiki syntax. Old revisions of the
page it self are earlier copies of the raw wiki page file. Again
without modification - exactly what the author had typed in up to that
point. These maybe stored compressed so access outside the wiki isn't
quite as simple as for the current version of the page.
In DokuWiki with the standard template, old revision information is
displayed on a separate page from the rendered wiki page. For DokuWiki
there is no advantage in storing both sets of information together, in
fact it could make the routines to access the information more complex
and slower.
Page metadata is stored separately to make it accessible without having
to access the page data itself. Metadata files are small (generally
under 1k, serialised php data). This makes accessing metadata extremely
fast. This is important as it is referenced often especially by wikis
which "use first headings for pagenames", where every link requires a
lookup for the curent page title. It also speeds up some of the slower
DokuWiki operations, e.g. backlinks.
Modern file systems (unlike the FAT, FAT32) store files quite
efficiently. On these systems, there is no significant space difference
between using lots of smaller files or fewer larger files.
Cheers,
Chris
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