User:Badon



I do mostly testing, bug hunting, and documentation writing. I have a particular interest in doing it for Semantic MediaWiki and related extensions, but I jump in anywhere I feel I can be helpful.

I have officially reported 75 bugs as of January 1, 2012 (and a few more unofficially . 56 of them are either FIXED or still open, and the rest are DUPLICATE, WONTFIX, or LATER. That gives me a 75% "usefulness" rate in my bug reports, with the remaining 25% often resulting in improved documentation (when the bug is actually an undocumented feature). I am always trying to improve my bug hunting skills and methods.

Here's some other things I care about:


 * User:Badon/Extension:Semantic_MediaWiki/Manual
 * MediaWiki commercial support
 * WikiMedia mailing lists
 * Markup spec
 * Help:Links
 * Help:Images

Bug hunting tips


This section may evolve into a full guide for debugging. For now, he's a few tips:


 * Check to make sure you haven't accidentally pasted the wrong text into a page. Semantic Forms pages and template pages getting swapped can produce errors that take down the wiki (until the code prevents those error conditions).
 * Check your clipboard manager's hotkey settings (if you have one) to make sure that you're not accidentally triggering hotkey functions that can be screwing up your pastes.
 * Use code inspectors like FireFox FireBug, Opera Dragonfly, or Chrome Inspector, to look at what HTML, CSS, JS, etc is being generated on a wiki page that isn't behaving like you think it should.
 * Use some code to automatically show an error message if you paste code into the wrong page by accident, like this (with Parser functions):


 * Strip down the problem code or circumstance until the bug goes away. That is your bug demo.
 * Finally, if you're sure you've found a bug, report it.

Advanced wiki coding toolkit

 * Help:Magic words
 * Extension:Variables
 * Extension:ParserFunctions
 * Extension:StringFunctions
 * Extension:Arrays
 * Extension:HashTables
 * Extension:Loops
 * Extension:ExpandTemplates
 * Extension:ReplaceText
 * Extension:MyVariables
 * Extension:CSS

Advanced wiki coding tips

 * Whitespace is the enemy.
 * If you can't get rid of the whitespace that's screwing up your wiki pages (especially in tables), put this in your MediaWiki:Common.css to make most of the annoying whitespace "disappear": .wikitable p { margin:0; padding:0; }
 * Since MediaWiki and web browsers do not show all whitespace characters, finding extra whitespace can be done with the urlencode magic word.
 * Use HTML lists and tables instead of wiki lists and tables. It makes formatting much easier, and less fragile.
 * Use at the end of lines to prevent the buildup of empty wiki paragraphs (1 for each 2 newlines).
 * Do not use inside #vardefine if you are going to test it with an #if, because in your variables will cause them to always pass the test.
 * is not needed inside functions that do not directly or indirectly output anything, like in string manipulation code.
 * It is better to use many #vardefines within nested #if tests than to place your #if statements inside a #vardefine. It makes debugging mysterious whitespace much easier.

Giving gifts


If you are an awesome MediaWiki helper, please put your Amazon wishlist on your user page. Note that you will not be able to stay anonymous if you do that. If you want to remain anonymous, "printable" eBay gift certificate codes can be emailed to you. If you're a recipient of help from an awesome MediWiki helper, here's where you go to get an eBay gift certificate code to show your appreciation:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ebay-gift-certificate

Be sure to select the option:


 * I will print out the gift certificate and deliver it myself.

And then select the amount you want to give. Don't enter in anything else.

Buying stuff for people on their Amazon wishlist, and sending "printable" eBay gift certificate codes, are both anonymous for the sender too! I recommend that you stay anonymous when sending people gifts for several reasons:


 * 1) Everyone loves a mystery
 * 2) It does not create any expectations of future gift-giving
 * 3) It encourages everyone to be polite to each other, since there's no way to know who's sending the gifts and who isn't

That last one is the most important. Even if only 2 or 3 people are sending gifts, as long as they do it anonymously, it makes the MediaWiki community much more friendly for every one of the thousands of people involved.