AuthoringPhilosophy
Patrick Michaud on the reasons behind Author variables:
I have trouble with the idea that PmWiki can automatically designate
the "original author" -- many times pages are created as simple
placeholders, which other authors then come and fill in. So, I
think $Creator is probably better name than $Author
for this, if
we were to add it. But overall I think it's a mistake to try to get
PmWiki to automatically determine "primary" authorship. Sometimes
pages are completely reworked; and some authors will start deleting and
re-posting pages just so they can get a perceived status or ego
associated with some "primary author" designation. I think it's
better if the appropriate credits for contributions appear in
the content (either as prose, signatures, citations, or directives),
than to have PmWiki impose a particular model on its authors.
Lastly, PmWikiPhilosophy #1 is "favor writers over readers",
and somewhat fundamental to that concept is that any reader
can also be an author, thus $Author
instead of $User or $Reader.
While I recognize this idea of "readers are authors" isn't
universally true for many sites that will use PmWiki, as well
as an extreme case of wishful thinking, the truth is that
in PmWiki the only way someone gets a value into the $Author
variable is to actually *be* an author.
(In case any are wondering, "authorship" and "identity" are two
different things in PmWiki. The variable used to track the
"reader" or login is $AuthId
, and it really stands for "authenticated
identity", as opposed to "author identity" or "author".)
Radu: The idea of 'readers as authors' is somehow negated by the existence of separate 'read' and 'edit' password sets.
I somewhat disagree. First, the 'read' password has nothing to do with this-- a read password doesn't separate a population into readers and authors, it separates them into readers and non-readers.
So, it's only the edit password that tends to separate things -- but even there, an edit password doesn't have to be site-wide. The edit password can be used (and often is used) simply to say "you can author any page on the site except the ones protected by this password". Generally the edit password is used as a security measure, not as a classification or caste system.
But in the final analysis, just because PmWiki promotes a particular view of the world doesn't mean it has to be totally consistent with it, or enslaved by it. In the "favor writers over readers" case, I'm rebelling against the traditional web maintenance architecture that limits pages to only one author (typically called the "webmaster"), and constrains everyone else to submitting their changes through that author. The philosophy isn't saying that everyone must be an author, it is saying that we should remove the barriers that prevent more people from becoming authors.
See also: Cookbook:PageCreator - recipe allowing to store, access and modify a Creator variable.
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