Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/Early

Welcome to Wikipedia's computer help desk; this is a centralized spot for seasoned computer veterans and people who need help with software related to Wikipedia. We are here to turn your complicated, time consuming, or boring task into a software problem and solve it for you. We also help people who are using automated tools, or possibly creating their own. If you are looking for assistance please continue reading. If you would like to become a member of this project please see.

Computer help desk
The help desk is the information technology resource and help center for many medium and large scale organizations. Such is our aim here: to help apply our knowledge of computer science to the articles you need help with and to help you resolve problems related to software as you use it to work on the Wikipedia. Please note that we do not have the resources to support your general computer questions or problems with your computer; we are limited to software tools as they are used to directly achieve tasks in the Wikipedia.

What is it exactly that we can do for you here? Here are some of the things we have done in the past:
 * Find all the articles that Chick Bowen had created for WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles; see 20051219 Chick Bowen.
 * Scan the Transwiki log and add a link to a WP:VfD if it exists for that specific page; see /20050709 Dmcdevit/
 * Convert large lists from improper formats to proper formats; compare List of Middle-earth articles and [ this page]
 * Reorder lists; see Tributaries of the Columbia River where the alphabetical listing was created very easily
 * Help a contributor fix a tool that broke after a software upgrade on the Wikipedia; see /20050702 Dmcdevit/

There are also things that we will not do:
 * We will not write software that systematically changes articles; this means that a human must be present to apply each change that will be made to an article. If this is what you need then bot requests is the place for that request.
 * We will not modify the MediaWiki software; however we may be able to create tools to work around deficiencies that you are facing.

To start the process to receive assistance please see the section.

Scope
The scope of this project covers the entire Wikipedia but is limited specifically to software related to Wikipedia.

Goals

 * 1) Assist fellow Wikipedians who are having trouble with an existing software tool
 * 2) Assist fellow Wikipedians who are trying to write their own automated tools
 * 3) Publish information, example source code, reusable modules, and other software packages to encourage fellow Wikipedians to create new software tools
 * 4) Create new software tools to assist fellow Wikipedians
 * 5) Apply the tools to articles or create tools for article specific tasks

Parentage

 * Father: WikiProject Community
 * Mother: WikiProject Computer science

Descendant WikiProjects

 * 1) WikiProject stubsensor - Identifies articles that may have the stub tag on them improperly. Contributers are required to verify the stub tag's correctness.

Related WikiProjects

 * Bot requests
 * WikiProject User scripts

Software

 * 1) Parse::MediaWikiDump is a Perl module that makes processing a MediaWiki database dump simple. Updated for the new XML dump format and providing a new and easier interface the module is now available via CPAN.
 * 2) /wpfsck/ is an application developed in Perl that searches for various errors in the english Wikipedia. Currently the software is unable to use the new XML dump file format and must be ported to the new Parse::MediaWikiDump.
 * 3) Wiki Data Dump Searcher is graphical easy-to-use a tool that directly scans the "Articles" XML dump, depending on how complicated the search is it can take as little as a couple of minutes. It is good for jobs like finding typos. (Written in C#)

Studies

 * 1) Category graph study A study of the current Wikipedia category system (currently implemented as a graph) and ideas on how to make it more useful. Community discussion is encouraged.
 * 2) Double redirect study A study of the possible solutions to the large problem of double redirects, including the penalty of each solution, and the positive aspects. Community discussion is encouraged.

Help desk Meetups
The Bootcamp is an IRC help desk and community resource center for both new and seasoned Wikipedians. Anyone is welcome to log into FreenodeIRC (irc://irc.freenode.net) and /join #wikipedia-bootcamp for Realtime help on work that you are doing - 24/7. - Please be patient. Type in tractor: help if you see me in there. (The tractor is an IRC implement under construction right here at the help desk project.) operated manually these days by Quinobi
 * Read http://freenode.net/catalysts for some insights on using freenode and IRC.

Cases

 * 1) /20051219 Chick Bowen/ Dig through User:Chick Bowen's contribution list to find the articles he has contributed in the name of WikiProject Missing articles.
 * 2) /20050715 LukeSurl/ LukeSurl has noticed that many articles on asteroids contain the stub tag but its not really needed.
 * 3) /20050709 Dmcdevit/ The Transwiki backlog has caused the VfD pages to become out of sync. Dmcdevit would like a one time run to help hyperlink to existing VfD pages for Transwikied articles.
 * 4) /20050702 Dmcdevit/ The Windows tool that Dmcdevit uses to perform Transwikis has broken since the software upgrade.
 * 5) /20050506 Triddle/ Convert a very large and improperly formatted list to the proper format at List of Middle-earth articles.

Cleanup projects

 * 1) Computer help desk/cleanup/double redirects/20051009 Oct 9, 2005; over 7,800 double redirects.
 * 2) Computer help desk/cleanup/double_redirects/20050623-1 6,032 more double redirects have been discovered.
 * 3) Computer help desk/cleanup/double_redirects/20050623 1,325 double redirects have been identified.