Meeting Purpose
Sync on project progress, resolve blockers, and plan future work.
Key Takeaways
- ACM Link Blocker: The Zotero link checker is blocked by Cloudflare bot protection on
dl.acm.org. ACM's proposed workaround of rewriting DOIs is rejected, as it violates the standard's purpose of providing stable, location-agnostic links.
- Staging Site Architecture: The staging site will use a new, dedicated repo for shared GitHub Actions workflows, replacing the .github repo to improve clarity and avoid confusion.
- Museum Mode Overhaul: The interlisp.demos.htm page will be integrated into the main website, converted to Markdown, and upgraded with interactive "demo buttons" to create a more engaging user experience.
- T-Edit Refactor: Ron's T-Edit menu refactor requires a compatibility check with Frank's NC prop list editor to prevent breaking existing functionality.
Topics
ACM Link Checker Blocked
- Herb's Zotero link checker is blocked by Cloudflare bot protection on
dl.acm.org.
- Problem: Many
doi.org links in the bibliography resolve to
dl.acm.org or
portal.acm.org, which then redirect to
dl.acm.org and trigger the bot protection.
- ACM's Proposed Workaround: Rewrite all
doi.org links to point directly to ACM's DOI endpoint.
- Rejection Rationale: This workaround is unacceptable because it violates the core principle of DOIs, which is to provide stable, location-agnostic identifiers. It also creates an unsustainable maintenance burden, as the team cannot predict where new DOIs will resolve.
- Status: Herb is awaiting a response from ACM after explaining the issue.
Staging Site & Search Infrastructure
- Bill is building the staging site infrastructure.
- Shared Workflows: Shared GitHub Actions workflows will be moved from the .github repo to a new, dedicated repo.
- Rationale: The .github repo is intended for organization-wide defaults (e.g., Code of Conduct) and is not the correct place for shared, reusable workflows.
- PR Sync: A GitHub app will be configured to sync PRs between the main and staging repos, enabling a realistic test of the new workflow.
- Bibliography Ingestion: Bill will follow up with Ellie on the proposal to use Markdown for the bibliography ingestion document. Herb will also ask Ellie in their meeting tomorrow if Bill doesn't hear back.
- Search: Bill will revisit the website search, focusing on indexing individual bibliography documents.
- Limitation: Search is currently limited to metadata (title, author, description) and cannot index the full content of linked documents.
Museum Mode Overhaul
- The interlisp.demos.htm page will be integrated into the main website.
- Current State: A basic HTML page (originally a Word doc) hosted at
files.interlisp.org with links to interactive demos.
- Plan:
- Migration: Move the page to the main site, likely under the "Software" or "Try it out" section.
- Format: Convert the page from HTML to Markdown for easier maintenance.
- Interactivity: Upgrade the demos with "demo buttons" that execute code directly in the Medli emulator, creating a more engaging, self-guided tour.
T-Edit Refactor & Compatibility
- Ron is refactoring the T-Edit menu interface to improve its architecture and code sharing.
- Compatibility Concern: The refactor may break Frank's NC prop list editor, which depends on T-Edit's internal menu structures (e.g., MB. functions, toggles).
- Action: Ron will review the NC prop list editor code to ensure compatibility.
Other Updates
- Prospective Student: Herb is meeting with Johans, a CS undergrad, to assess his interest in contributing to Medli.
- Benchmarks: The team will run the existing benchmark suite on various machines to gather performance data.
- Squeak Mastodon: The Squeak project's new Mastodon account gained 30+ followers after an Interlisp welcome post.
- ARIA Tapes Access: A request from Davide Rico to view the ARIA tapes on Google Drive was received. Access was denied pending verification of rights, as Fuji Xerox's investment complicates the release. Herb will reply to request more information.
- XCCS Proposal: Herb and Nick need to finalize the XCCS character set proposal for submission.
- GitHub Desktop Cert Issue: Ron reported intermittent "invalid certificate" pop-ups in the GitHub Desktop app. He will take a screenshot for investigation.
Next Steps
- Bill:
- Create a new repo for shared GitHub Actions workflows.
- Configure the GitHub app for PR sync between main and staging repos.
- Follow up with Ellie on the Markdown ingestion document proposal.
- Frank:
- Locate and send Ron the NC prop list editor file for review.
- Convert the interlisp.demos.htm page to Markdown and integrate it into the main website.
- Implement interactive "demo buttons" based on the demo listfusers package.
- Herb:
- Reply to Davide Rico's request for ARIA tapes access to gather more information.
- Finalize the XCCS proposal with Nick.
- Ron:
- Review NC prop list editor code to ensure T-Edit refactor compatibility.
- Take a screenshot of the GitHub Desktop certificate error.
- Team:
- Run the existing benchmark suite on various machines.
