1. What, exactly, is the difference between WebChanges and ChangesCgiScript?
2. Why does the menu item Changes show more changes than the menu item Detailed ?
3. It is obvious why one would want short and long changes, but why is one using a cgi-bin script and then other one embedded %SEARCH?

answers from elsewhere, which help, but still don't really illuminate

From ChangesCgiScript:

To show what changes have been made. Calculates this by trawling through the DotChangesFile? (.changes) in the WebDataDirectory? .

Note: this is different from the mechanism used by WebChanges which does not use the DotChangesFile? ; instead WebChanges contains a SEARCH directive that instructs TWiki to sort the files based on their change dates.

From TWikiOrgChanges:

>The Changes link, on the Codev web at least, is using the old changes script rather than WebChanges (which has a few new features)

This is actually done by purpose since there is a lot of refactoring going on and the changes script does not show the "Minor changes, don't notify" edits. We could possibly add both links at the top, but that is probably confusing. A better solution would be to add a new switch in search that does the same like the changes script.

From ChangesEnhancements:

> Ever tried to search for string changes ? After returning from long vacation, I have hard time to chatch up what happened on Twiki. Changes link returns some 40 topics, and far more than that was changed since I was here (at Codev web) last time.

> I propopse to add to the bottom of the page link to [last 100|all sorted by time] topics (will be parameter passed to changes script). Or is there any existing smart way to get all changed pages sorted by time?

The changes script is still in TWiki, but replaced by the WebChanges topic that has more or less the same functionality. That topic has links to see more changes. Here in Codev click on the Detailed link.

> I got confused, because clicking on Changes link on a page top does not link to WebChanges topic. Maybe it should? Or at least, let changes script print it out in the footer? How I am supposed to know there is difference?

so, how about it? what is going here? thanks in advance -- MattWilkie - 16 Sep 2003

Answer: Historical reasons

• Initially there was just the changes script which reads the .changes file. That file gets updated each time a topic is saved unless the "minor changes" flag is set.
• The changes script got replaced with the "search and sort by last modified date" feature. The WebChanges topic contains an embedded SEARCH (FormattedSearch) which does that. The changes script got retired.
• The embedded SEARCH (with sort by date) is not aware of "minor changes", it does its magic based on the topic modification date. The changes script got resurrected so that the "minor changes" can be excluded from the list.

Now, the FormattedSearch could be enhanced with a new sort feature: Sort by last modified date excluding "minor changes", e.g. search based on the .changes file.

-- PeterThoeny - 25 Sep 2003 (from WebChangesVsChangesCgiScript)

Yes, 'sort by modified excluding minor' is exactly what I'm trying to chase down. Now a SkipMinorChanges feature request.

-- MattWilkie - 19 Oct 2003

In implementing GoogleYourTWiki on my system I've run into question three again. In WebChanges, why is the first 50 search %SEARCH while the 100,200, etc. are the search cgi-bin script? (I've had to disable the more than 50 versions because I've removed the search cgi).

-- MattWilkie - 01 Dec 2004