Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2010-06-21/Technology report
Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
Toolserver IP addresses to be softblocked
Resource loader coming soon
Developer Roan Kattouw (User:Catrope) has said on the Foundation mailing list that work on a "Resource Loader" will start this week, to ease the "page weight" (size) of Wikimedia pages.
“ | [The Resource Loader] will optimize loading of resources like CSS and JavaScript [JS]. In particular, that means we'll no longer throw more than 100 KB of JS+CSS in your face then decide you're on an old unsupported browser and not use any of it. [W]ork on this resource loader has yet to get started, so it'll take some time to be finished and used in production; I can't really say when that will be, but rest assured that an elegant permanent solution is in the works. |
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The size of a typical Wikipedia page has been increasing considerably as the site has grown more complex. In particular, developments aimed at improving the editing experience – by bringing the visual look and feel of Wikipedia into line with other, even more resource-hungry sites – have tended to boost page sizes.
While it is still well within the acceptable range for users on broadband connections (since the browser will "cache" – store – the result, meaning it only has to be loaded once), Roan's message came in response to user Yann Forget's concern that "page weight is a major hurdle for working on any Wikimedia sites affecting users who do not enjoy a broadband connection ... [For improving the reach of Wikimedia outside the Western world], improving the page weight should be a priority."
In brief
Note: not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing, or may not be scheduled to go live for many weeks.
- A problem has been fixed in which Wikipedia's own JavaScript (including wikEd, a common gadget) interfered with browsers' ability to cache ("remember") what had been entered into forms when a user accidentally navigated away from a page and hit their back-button to return (bug #22680).
- Bug #pending changesand image deletions.
- Bots running from the Toolserver have been exempted from the CAPTCHA requirement even where it would be triggered for other users (bug #23982).
- The Foundation is planning to set up a second data center in the U.S., probably in Virginia (Foundation mailing list).
- A request has been put out for anyone who might be harbouring a full-text "dump" (backup) of the Dutch Wiktionary from the latter half of 2004 (Wikimedia Tech mailing list).
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