How to Edit this Manual...

From Knot Atlas
Revision as of 08:45, 27 August 2005 by Drorbn (talk | contribs)
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The Basic Rules

Knot Atlas manual pages are editable and are edited by both humans and robots (dedicated computer programs). Both sides have to be careful not to step into each other's territory. Under the current treaties, robots are responsible for simulated Mathematica output and for certain numerical values that are computed by KnotTheory`. Their territory always lies between <!--$ and <!--END--> tags. Humans are responsible for everything else, including brief ventures into the robot's territories to tell the robots what to do.

Human Edits

To perform a human edit, simply click on the "edit" link at the top of every manual page (or indeed, at the top of almost every other wiki page) and begin editing, saving your work at the end. Be careful not to modify anything in the robots' territory, delimited by <!--$ and <!--END--> tags. If you are only interested in an edit confined to a human territory, you don't need to read any further.

What Robots Do

Before a human can tell a robot what to do, (s)he must understand the simple way in which robots work. Robots do just one simple thing, and only when instructed to it. Here's how they work:

  1. They search the text of a manual page for patterns of the form <!--$robot instructions$-->old robotic response<!--END-->.
  2. They study the robot instructions and compute something.
  3. They print the output, i.e. the new robotic response, in place of the old robotic response. Just to be sure that humans don't modify the new robotic response, robots precede it with a short human do not enter phrase. Dror's robot's favourite is Robot Land, no human edits to "END".
  4. Robots never modify their own instructions or venture to human territories.

Human Ventures into Robot Lands

It is not a good idea for a human to modify a robotic response, as these changes will be overwritten the next time a robot roams the page. Better, humans can simply tell the robots what to do.

  • To create a new robot territory, put the pattern <!--$robot instructions$--><!--END--> in the desired place. The next time a robot visits it will follow the instructions and place its response between the $--> and <!--END--> tags.

Giving Robots Instructions

Calling for Robotic Action