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BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 20th, 2014, 10:37am

As you may be aware Wikispaces are discontinuing their free service (other than for Wikis which are exclusively for use in Higher Education). Therefore the BB4W Wiki - which contains a vast amount of information relevant to BBC BASIC for Windows - will be deactivated on 15th November next.

Converting it to a paid-for Wiki isn't a realistic option, unless some philanthropic person wants to contribute the $50 per year cost. undecided

Unfortunately the URL to the Wiki is hard-coded in BB4W (Help... Wiki menu selection) so that will probably cease to work after the above date.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Matt on Sep 20th, 2014, 11:01am

Hi Richard,

I may not have contributed much to this site recently, but I have often, looked in, and am still interested and active in BB4W. I would be very disappointed if the Wiki site were to close as it has helped me a lot. To me, $50 pa does not seem a significant cost, and am willing to be a cost partner (not sure what the correct term is) in its upkeep. Can you give me more information for this. If you require personal details, I think you have my e-mail address.

Matt
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 20th, 2014, 12:52pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 11:01am, Matt wrote:
To me, $50 pa does not seem a significant cost, and am willing to be a cost partner (not sure what the correct term is) in its upkeep.

I don't see how it could work, really. Anything involving money cannot be handled 'informally'; for example I might need to show it in my annual accounts or declare it for taxation purposes. I don't fancy having to invoice you (and maybe others) on a monthly or annual basis!

Personally I would have preferred Wikispaces to continue to provide a free service but with some advertising to fund it, with perhaps an option to pay in order to suppress the ads (rather like this forum - although in practice the donation process isn't usable because it requires an admin to activate the ad-free status).

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Edja on Sep 20th, 2014, 1:30pm

Quote:
Unfortunately the URL to the Wiki is hard-coded in BB4W (Help... Wiki menu selection) so that will probably cease to work after the above date
To have immediate access to all this information I wouldn't mind clicking a "bookmark" button on my browser as a work around to replace the "hard-coded in BB4W (Help... Wiki menu selection)". Creating such bookmarks only takes seconds.
But is it feasable for you to move all this information to another environment ?

I wouldn't mind either a yearly contribution but if that is complicated (accountancy, invoicing, taxes, ...), will there be an alternative?

Eddy
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 20th, 2014, 2:02pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 1:30pm, Edja wrote:
But is it feasable for you to move all this information to another environment ?

I have no idea. Wikitext isn't standardised, so even if there were some means to 'bulk import' the content to another host (371 pages at the last count, plus numerous images) there would no doubt be a lot of editing to do. One thing it would presumably be almost impossible to 'move' is the syntax-coloured code listings; I don't suppose any other Wiki hosting site knows about BBC BASIC syntax! I'm sure (the new owners of) Wikispaces are well aware of the difficulties, and are hoping that many people will cough up the cash to keep their wikis going.

Quote:
I wouldn't mind either a yearly contribution but if that is complicated (accountancy, invoicing, taxes, ...), will there be an alternative?

I am open to suggestions, but this sounds like a difficult nut to crack.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Matt on Sep 20th, 2014, 2:22pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 2:02pm, g4bau wrote:
I am open to suggestions, but this sounds like a difficult nut to crack.

Would paying for it privately, be an alternative? You could request annual private donations by post, say, and I'm sure there would be enough of us to reimburse you.

If all else fails, I would be willing to pay Wikispaces direct as a private payment. This would keep the finance of it out of your books. There's no guarantee this could be kept going long term, but it might hold it for a while.

I started printing off the pages as a back up, but didn't realise just how many there were!

Matt
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 20th, 2014, 2:47pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 2:22pm, Matt wrote:
Would paying for it privately, be an alternative?

It would be difficult to argue that a payment connected with my primary product is 'private'.

Quote:
I would be willing to pay Wikispaces direct as a private payment.

That would presumably require you to acquire ownership of the wiki. I don't even know whether a transfer of that sort is possible.

Quote:
I started printing off the pages as a back up, but didn't realise just how many there were!

Much easier to export it as a zip! You can choose to do so as Wikitext, HTML or PDF. At one time somebody used to do a regular export to the Yahoo! group to provide a read-only backup of the wiki.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Malcolm on Sep 20th, 2014, 3:58pm

Quote:
At one time somebody used to do a regular export to the Yahoo! group to provide a read-only backup of the wiki.


Well I did initially, but the option to bulk export was withdrawn from members. It looks like Richard did the last update.

The bulk download option is still there for the Admin or Organizer.
Quote:
If you no longer wish to keep your wiki active, you may allow your wiki to expire and it will be deleted. If you would like to export the contents of your wiki you can download the contents of your wiki in wikitext, HTML, or PDF format.

As for linking from somewhere else: it is easy to put in a link via the Utilities Manager. The search might get lost but if it was in a PDF then the pdf reader search facility might work reasonably well. Extracting the example code might be easier from HTML or "wikitext" though. Then again there is no real downside in putting both online. And there is plenty of space in the forgotten Yahoo files.


Malcolm.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 20th, 2014, 5:51pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 3:58pm, Malcolm wrote:
Well I did initially, but the option to bulk export was withdrawn from members.

Oh, I didn't know they had made that change. It's a pity, especially if the owner has 'gone away'.

Quote:
It looks like Richard did the last update.

In November 2011! I've now replaced it with a more up-to-date (although not current) version.

Quote:
And there is plenty of space in the forgotten Yahoo files.

Probably the only beneficial change arising from the Neo debacle was the increase in file storage from 100 Mbytes to 2 Gbytes. But the files are accessible only to members so I would still advise uploading to Wiggio and pasting the public link into a forum message if you want people here to be able to get it.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Malcolm on Sep 20th, 2014, 8:09pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 5:51pm, g4bau wrote:
It's a pity, especially if the owner has 'gone away'.

Richard.



What am I missing?

Malcolm.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 20th, 2014, 9:03pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 8:09pm, Malcolm wrote:
What am I missing?

In what respect "missing"? The information looks right to me Why did you reproduce it here? What relevance does it have to this forum or thread?

I have to say that I am sick and tired of your trolling.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 20th, 2014, 10:44pm

And now you retrospectively edit your message to make my reply appear nonsensical. In my opinion Conforums should not let you edit a message once it has been replied to.

For the record, the deleted content was an extract from my Wikispaces profile confirming that I am the owner of the BB4W Wiki, which (surely) everybody knew anyway.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Richey on Sep 20th, 2014, 11:00pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 10:37am, g4bau wrote:
As you may be aware Wikispaces are discontinuing their free service (other than for Wikis which are exclusively for use in Higher Education). Therefore the BB4W Wiki - which contains a vast amount of information relevant to BBC BASIC for Windows - will be deactivated on 15th November next.

Converting it to a paid-for Wiki isn't a realistic option, unless some philanthropic person wants to contribute the $50 per year cost. undecided

Unfortunately the URL to the Wiki is hard-coded in BB4W (Help... Wiki menu selection) so that will probably cease to work after the above date.

Richard.


This is a real shame. Personally I haven't really looked at the Wiki in any depth yet, having concentrated my efforts on the BB4W tutorial (been through that twice now) and the excellent BB4W documentation. It was certainly my intention to work through the material on the Wiki so I'll start to save it in PDF format. Richard, presumably this will affect (forgive me for mentioning it here on the BB4W conforum) the LB Booster Wiki too? sad
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 20th, 2014, 11:14pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 11:00pm, Richey wrote:
I'll start to save it in PDF format.

Apparently the ability to do that is now restricted to organisers only. Perhaps you could confirm that by checking whether the export option is available to you.

Quote:
presumably this will affect the LB Booster Wiki too?

Yes, and my other wikis such as colourrecovery and lb4help too. That's one reason why I don't consider coughing up the $50 per year to be a realistic option: it might not seem to be expensive for just one wiki but when multiplied by four it certainly is!

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Richey on Sep 20th, 2014, 11:32pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 11:14pm, g4bau wrote:
Apparently the ability to do that is now restricted to organisers only. Perhaps you could confirm that by checking whether the export option is available to you.


Yes, and my other wikis such as colourrecovery and lb4help too. That's one reason why I don't consider coughing up the $50 per year to be a realistic option: it might not seem to be expensive for just one wiki but when multiplied by four it certainly is!

Richard.


Richard, I can confirm that I have been able to export and save the Wiki content in PDF format - so, it is not restricted to organisers only, which is some good news.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Richey on Sep 21st, 2014, 12:01am

on Sep 20th, 2014, 11:32pm, Richey wrote:
Richard, I can confirm that I have been able to export and save the Wiki content in PDF format - so, it is not restricted to organisers only, which is some good news.


Albeit not in bulk...

Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 21st, 2014, 10:19am

on Sep 21st, 2014, 12:01am, Richey wrote:
Albeit not in bulk...

The PDF export appears to be broken anyway. I initiated one several hours ago and received the 'export complete' notification, but it still appears as 'pending' in the exports list and any attempt to download it causes Wikispaces to end up at a non-existent page!

The Wikitext export works, but since (as far as I know) no other wiki host uses the same variety of wikitext - and I'm not aware they they support a bulk import feature either - this is of limited value.

That leaves the HTML export, which works and results in a usable facsimile of the Wiki which could be hosted elsewhere, but it doesn't allow user editing or the addition of new pages.

At the Wikispaces blog the comment "Can you direct me to some other hosting service for wikitext that won’t cause extensive re-writing and reorganization?" received the reply "If you email us we’ll do what we can to help you migrate". I suppose I could try that but I'm not hopeful of a satisfactory response.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by KenDown on Sep 22nd, 2014, 4:30pm

Can anyone tell me how to download the wiki pages, please? Personally I think this is a disaster of the first magnitude, as the wiki is soooo helpful!

Ken Down
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 22nd, 2014, 5:43pm

on Sep 22nd, 2014, 4:30pm, KenDown wrote:
Can anyone tell me how to download the wiki pages, please?

My understanding is that this facility is now only available to organisers, although there does seem to be some lack of clarity on this point.

As stated earlier, I have put a more up-to-date backup (in wikitext format) in the Files area of the Yahoo! group. However I remain unsure what value this actually has, if other wiki hosts don't provide a bulk import facility. sad

Quote:
Personally I think this is a disaster of the first magnitude

I suspect there are thousands of wiki owners who feel the same way about their own Wikispaces wikis. Personally I think it's highly unlikely that only 8 comments have been made in response to the announcement on their blog. It's more probable that there has been an angry reaction but they are not approving comments (one I left - quite polite in my opinion - still says 'awaiting moderation').

One thing I'm considering is amalgamating my wikis (BBC BASIC, BB4W, LBBooster and lb4help) into one - not very elegant but expedient - thus making the $50 subscription per wiki better value for money! But I still worry that once they've got fee-paying users they will increase the subscription every year, knowing that people are locked in. I hesitate to call it blackmail but that's what it amounts to.

Altogether not a satisfactory situation. I've already manually moved my Colour Recovery Wiki over to Wikia (which is supported by advertisements) but that was only feasible because of its small size (15 pages). It's not practical to attempt the same for our wiki, and anyway it makes use of facilities unique to Wikispaces (for example the BB4W syntax colouring).

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Richey on Sep 22nd, 2014, 9:15pm

on Sep 22nd, 2014, 5:43pm, g4bau wrote:
My understanding is that this facility is now only available to organisers, although there does seem to be some lack of clarity on this point.


This is how I managed to export to a PDF.

At the top right of the Wiki page there are 4 buttons: Edit, View # Discussion Posts, View # Revisions; if you click on the next button, a series of options are presented, one of which is to export to PDF. The downside is that it appears as though you can only export one section at a time rather than being able to opt for a bulk export...

tongue
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Richey on Sep 22nd, 2014, 9:24pm

on Sep 22nd, 2014, 5:43pm, g4bau wrote:
One thing I'm considering is amalgamating my wikis (BBC BASIC, BB4W, LBBooster and lb4help) into one - not very elegant but expedient - thus making the $50 subscription per wiki better value for money! But I still worry that once they've got fee-paying users they will increase the subscription every year, knowing that people are locked in. I hesitate to call it blackmail but that's what it amounts to.


Richard, this seems a sensible and pragmatic response to what can only be described as 'pay up or you will lose all your hard work'!
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 25th, 2014, 09:28am

on Sep 22nd, 2014, 5:43pm, g4bau wrote:
However I remain unsure what value this actually has, if other wiki hosts don't provide a bulk import facility. sad

I have done a little more research into the possibilities of 'bulk importing' into another wiki host, and as far as I can discover none provide the capability to accept a wikitext export of the sort that Wikispaces creates.

Therefore of the three export formats supported, only HTML seems to be 'useful' (the PDF export failed entirely - it is still listed as 'pending' after several days). It can be browsed locally, and it ought to be possible to upload it to a regular website and by that means recreate a searchable 'read only' image of the wiki.

Accordingly, I've replaced the wikitext backup in the Yahoo! group's Files area with an up-to-date HTML backup. I would not suggest that you download it at this stage: the existing wiki will be available until at least November 14th.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Matt on Sep 25th, 2014, 2:17pm

I've been investigating other WEB to PDF export facilities and HTTrack is supposed to be good according to various reports (albeit, most of which are from related sites). It's the only one that seems to want to convert the entire website rather than just the single page. However, I can't get it to work without erroring on the Wiki site. If anyone with a little more knowledge than me can take a look at it, I was wondering if it might be worth using that, even if it was just to produce a simple capture of the pages.

If it sound like a daft idea, let me know.

Matt
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by KenDown on Sep 28th, 2014, 2:04pm

Well, I am hard at work copying and pasting the text of each page into Notepad and saving them. (The HTML is horrible!)

Once I have done that I will than have all the wiki pages as my personal reference resource.

I may then try to back-convert them to a decent standard of HTML. If successful, I'll let you know, Richard, and you can do with them what you will. As they will be in HTML, you may be able to put them on some other wiki site without having to worry whether that site does colouring for the BASIC.

Mind you, my personal feeling is that colouring is superfluous. We didn't have it back in the days of the BBC B and we still got on OK.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Matt on Sep 28th, 2014, 4:20pm

Until another way pokes it's head up, I've found a way of saving the PDF of each page.

Converting routine:
. open Google Chrome (the only browser I've got that saves just the main pane - IE and Firefox saves the whole page.)
. load page to be converted
. right-click on the main pane
. click on 'Print'
. select Destination as 'Save as PDF'
. click 'Save'

This will save the main text to a PDF file.

Note that some of the code windows don't seem to show all the text horizontally; the scroll bar displayed at the bottom doesn't work. Don't panic. If you copy the text by the line, it will copy the entire line not just the visible text.

Incidentally, is there not some copyright issue here, especially when trying to copy the entire website? If there is, have we been given permission due to the circumstances?

Matt
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 28th, 2014, 5:05pm

on Sep 28th, 2014, 2:04pm, KenDown wrote:
Well, I am hard at work copying and pasting the text of each page into Notepad and saving them. (The HTML is horrible!)

Why does it matter that the HTML is "horrible" so long as it displays correctly in common browsers? I presume (but haven't confirmed) that the exported HTML is identical to what is served when you access the wiki online conventionally; if so it ought surely to be entirely satisfactory as a 'backup'.

Quote:
Once I have done that I will than have all the wiki pages as my personal reference resource.

The same thing seems to be happening here as at the Liberty BASIC forum - people are spending time and effort taking their own copies of the wiki when in my opinion it's entirely unnecessary. Whatever the most appropriate long-term solution turns out to be - whether it's to pay for the existing wiki to remain online or to move it elsewhere - taking a personal copy benefits only that individual so isn't something I would encourage.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 28th, 2014, 5:17pm

on Sep 28th, 2014, 4:20pm, Matt wrote:
Until another way pokes it's head up, I've found a way of saving the PDF of each page.

You can't seriously be suggesting that anybody does this for each of the 300+ pages, surely? rolleyes

Quote:
If there is, have we been given permission due to the circumstances?

The BB4W wiki is published under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.5 Licence so you are free to copy and redistribute the material so long as you adhere to the terms. But certainly the 'current circumstances' make not the slightest difference and do not confer any permissions that would not otherwise apply.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by KenDown on Sep 28th, 2014, 7:11pm

Well, it is quite true that the end results are the important thing, but just the same as I prefer elegant BASIC to a hodgepodge of GOTOs, so I prefer elegant HTML - and what there is at present ain't elegant. It's a horrible mess.

As for benefitting just me, even if that were so, "me" is quite important to me and I *need* the information in the wiki. However I hope it won't be just for me. If I can get it to work and convert into HTML then I hope that the community can get together to find a solution to making it widely available - if nothing else, as a zip file!

The prospect of all that information just disappearing is too awful to contemplate.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Matt on Sep 28th, 2014, 8:04pm

on Sep 28th, 2014, 5:17pm, g4bau wrote:
You can't seriously be suggesting that anybody does this for each of the 300+ pages, surely? rolleyes

I'm not suggesting that anybody does it. I'm suggesting that that is what I am doing and that, if anyone wants to follow suit, then that's one way of doing it.

My concern, as with Ken, is that, if you decide to drop the Wiki site and we can provide no reasonable way to copy and use it as a group, then this seems as good a way as any. 300+ pages is a pain in the neck, but it's better than loosing it completely. Once it's done, I might be able to combine it into a single PDF file can be accesed through one of the other websites. Not nearly as good as the site, but still accessible.

Matt
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 28th, 2014, 8:40pm

on Sep 28th, 2014, 7:11pm, KenDown wrote:
The prospect of all that information just disappearing is too awful to contemplate.

on Sep 28th, 2014, 8:04pm, Matt wrote:
if ... we can provide no reasonable way to copy and use it as a group...

But we already know that the information is not going to disappear and that it will remain available to copy and use. As you are aware, I have put an HTML export in the files area of the Yahoo! group. Should there be a problem with the wiki continuing to be available online, it can be downloaded from there and browsed locally.

I don't understand why anybody would feel the need to spend time and effort regenerating a version of the wiki when this simple option is available.

Quote:
My concern, as with Ken, is that, if you decide to drop the Wiki site

So now I'm to blame rather than Wikispaces. cry

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Matt on Sep 29th, 2014, 07:04am

on Sep 28th, 2014, 8:40pm, g4bau wrote:
So now I'm to blame rather than Wikispaces.

My appologies, Richard. My intension was not to blame you, or anyone. A poor choice of words.

Quote:
But we already know that the information is not going to disappear and that it will remain available to copy and use. As you are aware, I have put an HTML export in the files area of the Yahoo! group.

My understanding was that you were investigating the possibility of an HTML version, not that you had done so. If that's the case, then that's fine.

I still have a more personal reason for having a local version, and that is that my internet connection is intermittent, and is occasionally out for some time. Having a local version means that I can view it off line. Although, there are many sites and thousands of pages that I would still not be able to view - so it would be a drop in the ocean.

Again, my appologies for my wording.

Matt
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 29th, 2014, 08:35am

on Sep 29th, 2014, 07:04am, Matt wrote:
My understanding was that you were investigating the possibility of an HTML version, not that you had done so.

There is nothing to investigate: exporting to HTML is a facility that has always been provided by Wikispaces. This is what I wrote in an earlier message in this thread:

"Therefore of the three export formats supported, only HTML seems to be 'useful'... It can be browsed locally, and it ought to be possible to upload it to a regular website and by that means recreate a searchable 'read only' image of the wiki. Accordingly, I've replaced the wikitext backup in the Yahoo! group's Files area with an up-to-date HTML backup. I would not suggest that you download it at this stage: the existing wiki will be available until at least November 14th."

I can't see how that is open to misunderstanding.

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by Matt on Sep 29th, 2014, 12:40pm

on Sep 29th, 2014, 08:35am, g4bau wrote:
I can't see how that is open to misunderstanding.

Perhaps not, but misunderstand it, I did. It is now clear. (Unless I've missunderstood the missunderstanding. grin )

Matt
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by KenDown on Sep 29th, 2014, 7:23pm

Hmmm. I shared Matt's misunderstanding. I am relieved to know that the information on the wiki will not completely disappear, but I did not apprehend that assurance until these recent exchanges.

Ken Down
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Sep 29th, 2014, 9:22pm

on Sep 29th, 2014, 7:23pm, KenDown wrote:
Hmmm. I shared Matt's misunderstanding.

Do I conclude that my mental deterioration has reached a stage when I can no longer write understandable English?

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by DDRM on Sep 30th, 2014, 09:30am

Hi Richard,

Well, I thought it was clear!

cheesy

D
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by KenDown on Sep 30th, 2014, 6:33pm

Not sure whether it was your failure to write clear English or the blind panic at thought of losing all that treasure the precluded our understanding!

Kendall Down
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by JGHarston on Oct 7th, 2014, 10:36pm

on Sep 20th, 2014, 2:02pm, g4bau wrote:
I have no idea. Wikitext isn't standardised, so even if there were some means to 'bulk import' the content to another host (371 pages at the last count, plus numerous images) there would no doubt be a lot of editing to do.
Richard.

It's sufficiently regular to be programatically converted. I've just spent a few minutes and converted a WikiSpaces page to a Wikia page using this code:

in% =OPENIN("H:\wikispaces.txt")
out%=OPENOUT("H:\wikia.txt")
raw%=FALSE
code%=FALSE
REPEAT
A$=GET$#in%
keep%=TRUE : PROCconvert
IF keep%:BPUT#out%,A$
UNTILEOF#in%
CLOSE#out%
CLOSE#in%
QUIT
:
REM //words// -> italics -> ''words''
REM **words** -> bold -> '''words'''
REM [[code format="xxx"]] ... [ [code]] -> indented text
DEFPROCconvert
IF raw%:ENDPROC
IF INSTR(A$,"[[code"):code%=NOT code%:A$="":keep%=FALSE:ENDPROC
IF code%:A$=" "+FNs(A$):ENDPROC
IF LEFT$(A$,2)="> ":A$=": "+MID$(A$,3)
PROCswap("//","''")
PROCswap("**","'''")
ENDPROC
:
DEFPROCswap(M$,R$)
REPEAT
A%=INSTR(A$,M$):IF A%:A$=LEFT$(A$,A%-1)+R$+MID$(A$,A%+LENM$)
UNTILA%=0
ENDPROC
:
DEFFNs(A$):IFLEFT$(A$,1)=" ":REPEATA$=MID$(A$,2):UNTILLEFT$(A$,1)<>" "
IFRIGHT$(A$,1)=" ":REPEATA$=LEFT$(A$,LENA$-1):UNTILRIGHT$(A$,1)<>" "
=A$


Edit: Wikia has a bulk upload facility, it requires the pages wrapped in XML which is programatically solvable, and I've recently had to so so when my website hosting service vanished. The main remaining issue is the BBC BASIC syntax colouring. I haven't investigated that yet.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by rtr2 on Oct 8th, 2014, 12:55pm

on Oct 7th, 2014, 10:36pm, JGHarston wrote:
It's sufficiently regular to be programatically converted.

Your program doesn't convert images or tables, which are used in a few BB4W wiki articles. The image syntax is easily adapted, I think, but the table syntax is less straightforward!

Richard.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by CharlesB on Mar 6th, 2015, 10:49pm

If you would give me the information on how to do it, I would like to cover this year's cost for the Wiki. I have looked it a few times and don't understand much at all, but I can see that it is too valuable to lose for the cost of one nice dinner.
Re: BB4W Wiki to be deactivated
Post by afarlie on Sep 8th, 2015, 8:56pm

on Oct 8th, 2014, 12:55pm, rtr2 wrote:
Your program doesn't convert images or tables, which are used in a few BB4W wiki articles. The image syntax is easily adapted, I think, but the table syntax is less straightforward!

Richard.


I've worked somewhat extensively with mediawiki tables, so converting raw HTML tables to Mediawiki wouldn't be too hard.