cppreference.com: documenting C++ one edit at a time
summary
A community-run documentation site for C++ evolves from hand-rolled Perl + static HTML to a CMS to Dokuwiki and finally MediaWiki, handling ~200,000 unique visitors/month. Pages wind up generated from heavy templating — some pages use 60 templates per page — and versioned per standard (C++98/11/14) with live in-browser compilation of examples. Migration works but costs SEO and template complexity; vandalism is rare, content is CC-licensed, and translated wikis seeded by Google Translate cause usability problems.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Origins of C++
- 1:17Standardization efforts
- 4:49Inception of cppreference
- 7:07Technical development
- 10:41Custom content systems
- 13:46Transitioning to a wiki
- 17:27Template complexity
- 20:41Community and vandalism
- 24:35Future goals and features
- 28:42Q&A and site sustainability
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