Manual of Style

From Design Computation
Jump to: navigation, search

The Manual of Style (abbreviated as DCMoS, DCMOS or MoS) is the style manual for all Design Computation articles. This primary page of the guideline covers certain topics (e.g. punctuation) in detail and summarizes the key points of other topics. The detail pages, which are cross-referenced here and linked by this page's menu, provide specific guidance on those topics. If any contradiction arises, this page has precedence over all detail pages of the guideline.

Wiki Page Types

Design Computation wiki generates a page collating all categorizations applied in the database. Pages will be distinguished between Historical, Theoretical, Case Studies and Application. To start your contribution, please create your user pager (e.g. 'User:John Smith') as a starting point and from there, start to give structure to your participation to the database.

User Page

We recommend that the first page you create is your own user page. This page title as the obligatory identifier User:, for example, User:Your Name. Click on your profile name on the top-right of the wiki window and you will jump to page creation mode and prompted to create your user page. The recommended sessions for your user page are on the table below. Refer to the User Page Template to copy and paste the headings.

Page Session Description
Category (Invisible) Add categories to the page. Check on the category pages for the database or create a new one. You should at the very least add a category for your affiliation, e.g. ''[[Category:UCL]]''
Abstract Create a short abstract to introduce yourself. The abstract does not need a heading. This will appear on the top of the page under the title.
Biography A short biography about you.
Research Focus Your research focus and activities. You can sub-categorize this with heading.
Propositions It is common to not actively research a particular subject but be in a position to make propositions of how the subject or domain can be further investigated and/or developed.
Publications Avoid the term Discussion as this will be addressed on Talk.

Basic Page Format

Pages in designcomputation.org are as short as possible and focus only on computational design taxonomies, cultures and ontologies. A page might be a simple definition that gradually evolves to have Motivation & Background, Structures and Applications with many detailed subtopics. Use the Basic Page Template to copy and paste the code formatting your new page.

Page Session Description
Category (Invisible) Add a category to the page. Check on the category pages for the database or create a new one if existent.
Title Please create page by searching first (top-right of the screen).
Abstract Create a short abstract to introduce the page. The abstract does not need a heading. This will not have a heading and will appear on the top of the page under the title.
Synonyms Equivalent topics in order of similitude,listed from equivalent to least equivalent. Hyperlinked.
Definition An abstract defining the topic and outlining the main Propositions of the topic.
Motivation & Background The theoretical framework, reasoning, Intellectual background. Includes detailed Characteristics and Theory.
Structures The mechanism depiction of the topic clarifying Principle, Precision and Generality of the method or theory.
Application Description of cases and application with steps-by-step explanations. This includes or links to Examples with scrips, computer code or mathematical model illustrating the application in the many design development platform available (listed on table in alphabetical order). For each platform (Dynamo, Grasshopper, Processing, etc.), one might find internal and external links.
Future Directions Avoid the term Discussion as this will be addressed on Talk.
Cross-References to parent topis, children topics adjacent topics.
Recommended Reading List of directly and indirectly related references.

Application Page

Application pages refer to material and methods shared by contributors for the resolution of design issues. This is often associated to live projects in the industry. Use the Application Page Template to copy and paste formatting on your new page.

Tutorial pages contains a Title, with the abstract (no heading) following, the Principle explaining in detail the underpinning mathematical rationale of the principle being applied, the Steps explaining different codes and finally, whenever possible the Download for tutorial files.


Page Session Description
Category (Invisible) Add a category to the page. Check on the category pages for the database or create a new one if existent.
Title Name of the page. Please check if the page already exists by running a search.
Synonyms Equivalent topics in order of similitude,listed from equivalent to least equivalent. Hyperlinked.
Definition An abstract defining the topic and outlining the main Propositions of the topic. Also defining the structure of the mechanism depiction of the topic clarifying Principle, Precision and Generality of the method or theory.
Application Description of cases and application with steps-by-step explanations. This includes Examples with scrips, computer code or mathematical model illustrating the application in the many design development platform available (listed in alphabetical order). For each platform (e.g. Design Script) one might find internal and external links. Some platforms for design computation development are C#, Catia, Dynamo, Grasshopper, Java, JavaScript, OpenFrameworks, Processing, Python, etc.
Cross-References to parent topis, children topics adjacent topics.
Recommended Reading List of directly and indirectly related references.


Creating Categories, Cross-Linking & Semantic Linking

A complete list of categories can be found on the categories page.

The Semantic Wiki information can be found at Wikipedia and the Semantic MediaWiki webpage.

Contribution Hierarchy and Management

DC has three main types of contributors:

  • DC-Visitor
    • Access to content but limited contribution to on Scratch name space contribution.
  • DC-Editor
    • Access to content and contribution to the main wiki body of knowledge.
  • DC-Curator
    • Access to full content, contribution to main body of knowledge and some administrative features like protecting pages and blocking users.

All new accounts are created as 'DC-Visitors' by default. If you would like to be a contributor, please contact Abel Maciel.

Text formatting

Wiki text formatting help

Test Syntax Highlight

1 def quickSort(arr):
2 	less = []
3 	pivotList = []
4 	more = []
5 	if len(arr) <= 1:
6 		return arr
7 	else:
8 		pass