Difference between revisions of "PEGWiki:PEGWiki is not an encyclopedia"
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| − | PEGWiki runs on the very popular [http://www.mediawiki.org/ MediaWiki] software. One site that uses MediaWiki that is particularly well-known is [http://en.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia]. One might be tempted to think that PEGWiki serves a similar purpose to that of Wikipedia. It does not. If it did, then it would be pointless to write articles about computer science for PEGWiki (when one could simply add them to Wikipedia instead) | + | PEGWiki runs on the very popular [http://www.mediawiki.org/ MediaWiki] software. One site that uses MediaWiki that is particularly well-known is [http://en.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia]. One might be tempted to think that PEGWiki serves a similar purpose to that of Wikipedia. It does not. If it did, then it would be pointless to write articles about computer science for PEGWiki (when one could simply add them to Wikipedia instead). |
| − | + | As a matter of fact, the [[Longest palindromic substring]] article was, at some point, copied from PEGWiki onto Wikipedia; and later it was decided that the style was not appropriate for Wikipedia. This is to be expected, as the two sites focus on different things. Without attempting to speak for Wikipedia, it can be said that PEGWiki articles are intended to resemble sections of a computer science textbook. They are supposed to contain detailed explanations of the reasoning behind algorithms and data structures, rather than simply presenting them as-is and leaving the reader to try to figure out how they work. | |
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| + | Also, because PEGWiki is a wiki about computer science, with a focus on techniques applicable to programming contests, there are many topics which might not be notable enough to deserve their own articles on Wikipedia but would nevertheless be welcome as individual articles here. An example is [[Convex hull trick]]. | ||
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| + | Lastly, it should be mentioned that the level and style of a PEGWiki article should be appropriate for PEG. So, for example, if you think an explanation is incomplete, poorly written, or confusing, then by all means improve it, but don't rewrite sections to make them more understandable for the non-computer-literate; they are not the intended audience. | ||
Latest revision as of 23:46, 1 March 2012
PEGWiki runs on the very popular MediaWiki software. One site that uses MediaWiki that is particularly well-known is Wikipedia. One might be tempted to think that PEGWiki serves a similar purpose to that of Wikipedia. It does not. If it did, then it would be pointless to write articles about computer science for PEGWiki (when one could simply add them to Wikipedia instead).
As a matter of fact, the Longest palindromic substring article was, at some point, copied from PEGWiki onto Wikipedia; and later it was decided that the style was not appropriate for Wikipedia. This is to be expected, as the two sites focus on different things. Without attempting to speak for Wikipedia, it can be said that PEGWiki articles are intended to resemble sections of a computer science textbook. They are supposed to contain detailed explanations of the reasoning behind algorithms and data structures, rather than simply presenting them as-is and leaving the reader to try to figure out how they work.
Also, because PEGWiki is a wiki about computer science, with a focus on techniques applicable to programming contests, there are many topics which might not be notable enough to deserve their own articles on Wikipedia but would nevertheless be welcome as individual articles here. An example is Convex hull trick.
Lastly, it should be mentioned that the level and style of a PEGWiki article should be appropriate for PEG. So, for example, if you think an explanation is incomplete, poorly written, or confusing, then by all means improve it, but don't rewrite sections to make them more understandable for the non-computer-literate; they are not the intended audience.
