User talk:Howief (WMF)

Hello!

I'll be glad to talk further. Do you want to call me--Monday? email me for the number & to set a time, though I think several of the people at the foundation know the number DGG 21:33, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Uploaded files reminder
Just a reminder, all files uploaded here most have licensing information or they can be deleted. Peachey88 01:45, 21 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I've added the license information by re-uploading the files. Please let me know if there's a better/more preferred way to add license information once a file is uploaded.  Howief 16:59, 21 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Bah, It hasn't appeared to, Easiest way would just to be pick out something from Category:License templates and add it to the file description page manually. Peachey88 09:09, 26 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I added a license template to these pages. Let me know if this is what you had in mind.  Howief 21:47, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

More files that need licening
Same as last time, these need licensing details added: File:Article feedback anon reg.jpg, File:Article assessment nov 8 anon short.jpg, File:Article assessment nov 8 long.jpg, File:Article feedback done.jpg, File:Article feedback anon reg.jpg. Peachey88 00:31, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

Request for new Extension on MediaWiki (CopyToClipboard)
Hi, I have been doing some volunteer work(coding) for MediaWiki for about a month now. I felt the need for an extension that lets you copy text to clipboard on the click of a button, specially to copy code for installing new extensions(as in most sites and in GitHub); I have developed an extension for the same. It would be really great if you could have a look at it here and let me know if it can be deployed on MediaWiki.

P.S. Extension:CopyToClipboard uses Flash to work; However, it doesn't prompt the user to install any plugins and just doesn't show up if Flash is not installed. --Nischayn22 (talk) 17:51, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Developing MediaWiki extension for WebGL-enabled interactive 3D models
Hi Howie, I'm in the process of developing a media handling extension for MediaWiki that will allow users with WebGL-enabled browsers to manipulate 3D models of large biological molecules, like proteins and DNA. Per https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Writing_an_extension_for_deployment, I wanted to get in touch with you about user experience considerations for a feature like this. I described the extension in a post to wikitech-l yesterday: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2012-April/060254.html.

That post outlines two salient UX questions for the feature. First, how should the feature gracefully degrade for users that don't have WebGL enabled on their browser? Second, for users that do have WebGL-enabled browsers, how should interactive models be presented upon loading the page? I've given some initial opinions on those two questions along with my rationale in that wikitech-l post, but I'm definitely willing to go with different solutions if they're deemed to be better.

Please send any questions or comments my way. I'll watch here for any reply, or I can be reached via email or on my en-wp Talk page here. Thanks! Emw (talk) 15:18, 22 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Very interesting. Would it be possible to schedule a quick Skype call between you, me, and Brandon Harris (our designer)?  I have a feeling it may be more efficient for us to simply chat about this in real-time :) Howief (talk) 01:25, 25 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Sounds good! I've emailed you my Skype contact information and availability. Best, Emw (talk) 19:45, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

MediaWiki extension for SignWriting
Hi Howie, I've updated my MediaWiki extension for SignWriting. SignWriting is a universal script for sign languages. There are several requests for sign language Wikipedias and Wiktionaries that have been verified as eligible but are awaiting an active test project.

The SignWriting MediaWiki Plugin currently implements a SignWriting viewer using a database font of SVG and PNG.

The SignWriting data uses 2 flavors, either an ASCII markup or PUA Unicode on plane 15. We did have a Unicode proposal that was moving towards balloting, but that proposal has been suspended. There is a new group trying to redesign a Unicode proposal, but they are still in the initial design phase.

The current SignWriting data is documented in the Modern SignWriting Specifications with an extensive amount of writing available in many of the world's sign languages. There are over 9,000 signs in the American Sign Language dictionary and over 17,000 signs in the German Sign Language dictionary. There are many other dictionaries with several thousand signs each. The SignWriting data from these dictionaries can be accessed from SignPuddle Online or from an XML file of a few MB for each dictionary.

Next month, I'll start rewriting the SignWriting editors using jQuery. These editors will first be available in the general purpose SignWriting Image Server and then I'll start researching how to properly integrate these editors into MediaWiki.

Is this something the Wikimedia Foundation sites should have?

Regards, Slevinski (talk) 14:08, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

LinkedWiki like line of research ?
Hi Howie, I'm developing the extension Extension:LinkedWiki. It's for the moment a very light extension (now in gerrit). First step, it was read data of other sources (for test) with a query SPARQL directly in a Wiki. The second step, it will parse wiki and save link to data. For example: city::Paris in the page France will be in one database "a:France prop:city a:Paris" (like SMW but a version very very simple). The data will be a Giant Graph but there are a problem of performance with this type of database. This problem like repository of linux is very simple to resolve... mirror the database in real time (stream of data directly of wikipedia). When this step will work(several years), it will be possible to create a new generation of bot to increase the quality of wiki's project. Each bot (personal or not) will work in real time on a local database. The contributor will be control the page and the data and bot/trigger/popup would help the contributor to improving the articles. I had this idea,3 years ago but I have no the time to work on it. I would like to pass a phd on this subject but I cannot find a laboratory in France for do that. So what do you think about this idea/line of research?... "Linked Wikis" is against the spirit of Wikipedia ? useless to continue ? (sorry for my english) Thanks --Karima Rafes (talk) 00:10, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Converter for Karachay language
Hi Howie, I am developing an extension for conversion of Karachay (krc) texts from Cyrillic to Latin. Karachay Wikipedia community is very small. Actually there is only one active user there, with whom I am working on the extension. That user is Iltever. The discussions over the extension are here, here and here.

Cyrillic to Latin converter is good for Karachay diaspora to take part in Karachay Wikipedia. You can find out more about Karachays and the Diaspora in Wikipedia article.

The converter works like Serbian one. It puts script switcher to the navigation panel, right after Discussion tab. When Cyrillic is chosen, nothing happens. But when Latin is chosen it does the following things:
 * 1) Sets new logo with Latin script
 * 2) If UI language is krc then it translates system messages into Latn
 * 3) Translates page into Latin

What do you think about it? --Bouron (talk) 20:08, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Category changes extension
Hello Howief. I want to have a design review for an extension that I plan to write. The idea is to watch changes to categories (addition and removal of pages to/from a category). Therefore the extension would make a special page where you can see those changes of the last 30 days (like recent changes). To generate the data, I will use a hook that populates a database table. I think that is the only proper way to implement a feature like this because it needs close integration into the MediaWiki software. Bots or tools are too inefficient or not up to date. It does not use the logging table, because that would be permanent. The recentchanges table would not be appropriate as well, as I think that it shouldn't be mixed with the other changes. You also have problems if you want to group category changes by pages, not categories and vice versa. I think that this feature would be really useful, requests: w:de:Wikipedia:Verbesserungsvorschläge/Feature-Requests/Archiv/2012, w:de:Wikipedia:Bots/Anfragen (also wished for enwiki), 34269. Please tell me what you think of an extension like this and if it can be deployed on Wikimedia sites. – Giftpflanze (talk) 09:37, 9 December 2012 (UTC)