Template talk:Documentation

Known Bugs

Using a raw equals sign (=) in this (or any) template will cause it to fail to properly recognize the parameter. This only applies to equals signs that the template can actually "see"; that is, not those inside other templates or parser function calls. To work around this, use either {{=}} or <nowiki>=</nowiki>. Sethladan 21:36, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

Templates with a / in their title will get unexpected behavior due to the use of {{BASEPAGENAME}}. This is mostly an issue with the Stub/... templates which probably should be renamed since they're not subpages of the (non-existent) Template:Stub. Sethladan 22:02, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

I would love to know where/why the use of the word "Stub" came into being -- 90% of the time I've seen it used in the Wiki environment, the meaning is simply bogus -- a "stub" is a dead end, or a cut-off (i.e. truncated) piece of something -- like a "ticket stub" or the "stub of a pencil". It has no relationship to "incomplete" -- which is how it is used in this case.

I.e. Category:Stubs is simply "wrong." The explanation I wrote is simply an explanation of "what" not "why."

Usage comes from Things to do#Making_a_contribution. "Stub Tags" had been in use before I started calling things "Article Management Tags".

And some subcategories -- such as Category:The North Downs Mob Stubs have been stuck there by some arbitrary and inconsistent usage of some template.

Maybe the category should be called "Incomplete Pages" or "Pages in need of modification" or ???

Clearly this entire "concept" needs (re?)organization.

BTW, I see you have been looking at the wikipedia's "pretty" documentation pages. :)

Wm Magill - Valamar - OTG/OTC - talk

I definitely agree with you about the weirdness of "stub" tags. I guess it was inherited from other wikis (Wikipedia does use "stub" to describe a very short page that needs more work). I started trying to reorganize this usage, as you mentioned - Stub/Beta is now just Template:Beta, although I didn't change any of the categories yet. And a lot of those old mob stub categories definitely do need to go.

And, yes, I completely copied the Wikipedia documentation style, hahah. Shameless. Sethladan 15:58, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

I looked at it a while ago, but never figured out how to come up with the pretty color background :) (CSS I assume?)

I assume you are tracking the pages you have modified with the template at User:Sethladan/Template_Notes

Also do you have any suggestions for a new name for Category:Stubs

BTW: OK, I give up -- "Refactoring/code cleanup" - I am unfamiliar with the term "refactoring" -- "changing the factoring" -- Obviously Computer Science has morphed since my day.

Refactoring.com is a brave new world (I think). But since it doesn't deal with Fortran or Cobol -- "Agile programming?" the mind is reeeeeeling. Software Process... argh, now I begin to see where this is coming from. (I'm browsing Fowler's website as I write this. "The new Methodology".) I'm thinking of crawling back under my rock until my brain stops throbbing.

Interestingly, in the first few paragraphs, I believe I am seeing A LOT of what is wrong with LOTRO. Given that the "design phase" is nominally circa 2005 (I think the first alpha was in late 2005 or early 2006.) -- That rock is looking cozier and cozier!!

Wm Magill - Valamar - OTG/OTC - talk 16:52, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

The "pretty background" is indeed CSS - if you search for "documentation" in MediaWiki:Common.css, you'll see the class that I added there. It just changes the color and adds a little margin/spacing/border.

Re: refactoring, it's just a word I picked up in passing; I have no idea when it entered the programmer's jargon dictionary (hasn't been mentioned in any of my coursework or anything). In my mind, refactoring just means rewriting code to made it cleaner and "betterer" as opposed to adding new features. See, for example, the quote near the beginning of Wikipedia's article on the topic. So it's just a "cool" way of saying to myself "straighten out all the cruft and poor style that's accumulated over the years and make stuff more readable." However enticing that rock looks, you have far more experience in programming than I do; don't let a silly newfangled word scare you off. :)

Which Fowler do you mean? I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts on "A LOT of what went wrong with LOTRO," although this might not be the best vehicle for that, heh. I've seen your comments in the past (on lotrointerface, I think) about all their memory leaks and stuff, and the difference between systems engineers and software engineers. Instruct me, sensei! Sethladan 18:40, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

I have not, sadly, come up with anything more creative than "stub" so I'm just going to rename a lot of the "Stub/XYZ" templates to "XYZ Stub." Some make enough sense without "stub" there that I can just it out (Expansion and Accuracy are two that come to mind). Incremental progress! Sethladan 16:03, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the bug with the = sign also extends to MediaWiki-style table syntax, necessitating liberal use of {{!}} and siblings if you want to put a table on a documentation page (see for example Template:Barter/doc). The alternative is to use HTML-style tables, but those are even uglier. Sethladan 18:04, 12 July 2014 (UTC)