MichaelDaumWouldLikeToCheckIn

I am a research assistent at the University of Hamburg, Department of Computer Science in the Natural Language Systems Group. My main job is not focused on TWiki or content management systems, albeit I've been TWikiing the last 4 years since I installed a beijing for our web appearance working parttime on it. It quickly became obvious that this stuff needed some little tweaks here and there to make it actually usable. So I started to develop the NatSkin incl supplemental plugins , push TWiki as far as possible with two of goals in mind: usability and speed. Actually, TWiki falls short considerably here. Nevertheless, TWiki is fun (hm ....) I quickly found out that I could alleviate part of that pain (don't letting nit look like a wiki). Well, now then I ended up with a hacked beijing and hacked plugins with a hard time to get my botches out to the TWikiCommunity again. This time I'd like to contribute immediately as I switch over to Dakar.

These are my current and past TWiki activities:

• author of the VotePlugin
• author of the NatSkin, NatSkinPlugin
• author of the BibtexPlugin (refactored versions of similar approaches, not yet published on TWiki.org)
• maintainer of the CdgParserPlugin (not yet published on TWiki.org)
• maintainer of the AliasPlugin
• contributions to the HeadlinesPlugin, ImageGalleryPlugin
• unpublished hacks similar to the TWikiCacheAddOn
• unpublished hacks similar to the AuthPagePlugin with logon pages already present in the NatSkin (see here for a demo, note that this is not yet based on the AuthPagePlugin)
• unpublished hacks to the MathModePlugin
• unpublished hacks to add ssl support into beijing (if registered user then https: else http:)

These are my future plans:

• get the NatSkin working on Dakar; it looks like no NatSkinPlugin will be needed any more; the skin will depend on the SessionPlugin and the AuthPagePlugin by default; it will contain an improved navigation scheme that works similar to the WebLeftBar thingy but is renamed to WebSideBar? with the same look-n-feel as the navigation on the NatsWiki, including personalized navigation
• release a new version of the AliasPlugin with the help of TravisBarker
• some minor changes to the VotePlugin (provide user feedback for a successfull vote)
• implement a FragmentCacheContrib? : API for plugins to cache html fragments; this will be used in the uppcoming BibtexPlugin; the MathModePlugin (kudos to the original author) and others might be ported to that scheme
• make those plugins that I'd like on the new NatsWiki Dakar-ready
• factor out a DocumentRelationsPlugin? from the NatSkinPlugin; the ImageGalleryPlugins modifications that I've already sent over will make use of that; this idea is will give you nice navigation menus in browsers that understand them (mozilla, konqueror, any firefox-extension available?)
• tinker with a DependencyTrackerPlugin? idea, see discussions on the TWikiCacheAddOn

... and yes, get my PhD done.

Some of this might get directed to one of my student helpers here at the university that get payed for that (not the PhD )

Conclusion: I'm too late with tons of stuff I'd like to share with y'all. Most of that is doable w/o write acces to DEVELOP, but anyhow I'd like to help Dakar to become ready by getting some of the smaller buglets out. While doing the NatSkin port I came accross some issues of TWiki that show it still being coupled to the PatternSkin in a rather tight mannor. Most probably I will come up with some PatchProposals that address that ...

-- MichaelDaum - 26 Mar 2005

It would be really good to pull your experience into the DevelopBranch. I don't mind putting in small patches for people, but at this stage I'm starting to think that the more eyes we have looking at the code, and the more checker-inners able to fix it when it goes wrong, the better.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 26 Mar 2005

Welcome to DEVELOP, Michael!

-- SvenDowideit - 02 Apr 2005

Michael, thank you very much for contributing so much to the TWikiCommunity! Welcome to DEVELOP!

-- PeterThoeny - 31 Aug 2005