01508: names cookbook and recipe are silly
Description: I do not get why the addon programs have used 'cookbook' and 'recipe'. It seems very silly to use these terms. Anyone who would use them would know the terms 'addon' and 'program'. I propose we change the 'cookbook' to 'addon', and change 'recipe' to 'program'. Why do they use these silly names? gnuzoo
See why: https://www.pmwiki.org/pipermail/pmwiki-users/2003-June/000679.html. --Petko
I do not see any reason why at URL: https://www.pmwiki.org/pipermail/pmwiki-users/2003-June/000679.html
It has a link to http://www.pmichaud.com/wiki/Cookbook - which shows "The page "Cookbook" doesn't exist".
Just because something is a certain way does not mean it should stay that way. A lot of things changed since PmWiki started.
It may have seemed like a good idea at the time. Right now it just seems silly IMHO. --gnuzoo
On the contrary it is a very clever name. PmWiki recipes are like cookbook / food recipes where you have lists of ingredients and instructions how to prepare them. It is also part of our community jargon and culture. On the mailing list it was suggested that the new family of recipes Cookbook:Extensions may be better moved to a separate wikigroup, but nobody agreed and I am not sure I want to do it. --Petko
This is kinda like calling building a rocket to Mars "tossing a carrot". No human person is gonna sit in their kitchen cooking dinner for their significant other and their offspring while using a computer and coding PmWiki, PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Regular Expressions and say to themself, "Oh no! I cannot figure this out because they renamed 'cookbook' to 'Extentions Hub' and 'recipe' to 'Extention'! If they can do all those things they ought to be able to figure this out. --gnuzoo
Oh no, 8000+ books about "cookbook programming" on Amazon. --Petko
And 40,000 books about "programming". --gnuzoo
My point was, it is not silly or even unusual to use the word "Cookbook" for software/programming documentation and training, it has been around for decades and has been used by authors, educators, learners, and linguists. One of the meanings of the word is any book of strategy or detailed instructions (Wiktionary, Webster, OpenAI). --Petko
The name "addon" would not be accurate. The Cookbook isn't merely a set of code snippets to be added into PmWiki, it's also intended to be a repository for best practices and applying PmWiki to specific problem domains (which sometimes includes some snippets of configuration code). The "recipes" aren't the downloadable php files, the recipes are in fact the wiki pages themselves that describe how to do something with PmWiki (which may involve downloading some code). Beyond that, the PHP files that one downloads from the Cookbook are not properly termed "programs", since the PHP files are not standalone. The common modern term might be "plugins", but that doesn't sit right with me somehow; recipes often don't have a "plugin" feel. At any rate, I'd reject the proposed "addon"/"program" terminology as being imprecise, but ultimately it's really up to Petko to make this call. Pm
WOW! Pm is still here! जय गुरुदेव ॐ Awesome response Pm! --gnuzoo
I do like the word "Extensions" which Petko is already using. --gnuzoo
Extensions are a category of recipes with a specific structure, Skins are another category of recipes with a specific structure. The names Skins or Extensions cannot be applied to all other recipes. (Here in "recipe" I include the downloaded code.) --Petko
I think it is obvious to an average human that "Cookbook" and "Recipe" refer to cooking. BTW, I hate cooking.
IMHO "Extension" applies to more than the word "recipe" does. I do not think "skins" is a recipe at all, it is a
rather good mnemonic for the functionality it provides.
My immediate perception of the Extension Hub and Extensions were that you would prefer to have every "recipe"
be moved to it. This appears to be a good idea. But reality is that there are approximately 1363 recipes.
There are so many of them and I think most of them are not maintained. There are so many that not one person
would probably go through the entire list to pick one out, knowing that the are very likely to not be compatible
with their version of PHP etc. Some of them are extremely complicated to the point that no one would ever try to
use them. Perhaps you can you add an expiry timestamp on them requiring maintenance/upgrading/ better descriptions,
and PHP V8.1 or newer compatibility and/or more. I think they have kinda gotten out of control.
Gentlemen, please do not misperceive my intentions. PmWiki is a FANTASTIC tool for creating a website. I love PmWiki.
Pm - you changed my entire career. I see so much potential that PmWiki provides, I feel compelled to share my opinions.
My comments are not personal attacks. --gnuzoo
Your comments about the number of recipes, and older recipes, and the difficulties for new webmasters, are valid, although we do have categories for PHP version compatibility. Having a separate wikigroup only for extensions which are more modern and more likely to be maintained and compatible with recent PHP versions may be a good idea for newcomer users to select what to install. --Petko
> "The name "addon" would not be accurate"
The Main menu has "Cookbook (addons)" listed. The name could be a better mnemonic - designed to indicate to the casual
observer the intent of its use. I still feel the usage of CookBook and Recipe do not reflect the intent of its use.
There is no reason this all has to be dumped into one group. Perhaps it could be split up into more than one section,
"How To", "Addons", "User Guide", "Tutorial", "Owners Manual", "Methods", "Extensions", "Programs", "Best Practices".
With approximately 1363 they could be better organized. --gnuzoo