Template talk:Checklist

New version

I'm working on an updated version of this checklist at User:Catherine Woodgold/checklist v1.1.

The main thing I'm doing is: I'm replacing repetetive code with calls to Template:Yes-or-no (which I seem to have accidentally created with a capital letter at the beginning of its title; I meant "yes-or-no".) This should have no effect at all on how the template displays, but cuts down the length of the code, hopefully making it easier to read and maintain.

I feel that more documentation is also needed. Us poor newbies who have just been told that there are no acronyms here don't necessarily immediately realize that "abc" means "form of title for purposes of putting into alphabetical order, e.g. 'Smith, John'" or even that "y" means "yes" or, most importantly, that "check: yes" means "yes, it needs to be checked" as opposed to "yes, it has been checked and is OK". --Catherine Woodgold 12:07, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

I agree with your comments here. Also, since you seem interested, check out the talk:biology/Draft page for an alternative 'look' that I was working on. Note that I incorporated the talk archive box into the options too, although that might well be too convoluted. Chris Day (Talk) 12:27, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

Nifty colouring! I have no strong opinion about including the talk archives or not; probably better to include links to the archives than not, I guess. I haven't looked into the mechanics of that part. Now I'm just wondering: How do we incorporate all these changes into one final version? We now have 3 versions of the template. I could re-do my changes: about 6 edits, 6 multiline deletions and one multiline addition of documentation. How extensive are your changes? Note that Larry Sanger has edited this version of the template more recently than your fork. How do we go about requesting permission to edit the actual template?

By the way: Thanks for responding! I'm very new to Citizendium and you're pretty much the first human I've run into, besides someone who apparently noticed my request to delete a page. Nice to have interaction! --Catherine Woodgold 12:56, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

Always nice to meet a human now and then :) My changes do not alter the check list code apart from adding extra code for the talk archives. The rest is style changes that are a shell for the code that already exists. Note my experimetal template is just for me to play with, nothing official. Originally i had made those changes to the working checklist and discussed it with larry on his talk page. The problem is that i could never recreate the problem that he had on IE using my MAC's. Since i could not recreate the problem I could not trouble shoot it, so i let it lie dormant, however, your renewed interest makes me think this might be worth resusitating. If you look at my sandbox you will see a copy of the page where Larry saw the wrapping problem. i wonder if you can see it or not? Chris Day (Talk) 13:42, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

This is weird: I can't seem to get to your main user page. Only your talk page. Where's your biography?

I looked on your talk page and the talk page of your test template Template:Experimental (which is empty) but I can't find your discussion with Larry about the wraparound problem. Could you tell me where it is?

Actually, the archive links at your experimental version of checklist, Template:Experimental may need more work. At the Talk:biology/Draft, it displays a link called "Archives", but instead of the link going to an archived talk page, it goes to some sort of template. In cases where there are no archived talk pages, there should be no link given at all. In cases where there are archived talk pages, probably there will need to be more than one link, going to more than one page of archives. Actually, perhaps it's better to "do one thing and do it well": a template for linking to talk page archives should probably be a separate template and perhaps have more options. Is there a standard format for archiving talk pages? Likely such standards aren't solidified yet, so I don't see how your template can know where to find the talk page archives. I could be wrong about that.

If you make the archives box a separate template which can be called by the checklist template, then the archives box could also be useful for archiving user talk pages and other pages.

The sandbox link you gave is a redlink (link to a nonexistent page).

I hate to admit it, but I have access to Internet Explorer. I displayed it on that and it looks OK to me. If you narrow the window, first the archives box moves to above the checklist box; then if you narrow it further, both boxes disappear -- but that's a pretty narrow window. --Catherine Woodgold 18:48, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

Hi Cathrine, i linked to the discussion with Larry above. Here it is in its more skeletal form (User_talk:Larry_Sanger/Archive_3#checklist). The archive box is its own template with all the features you suggest above. What you see on the biology page is the archive template embedded in the checklist template. The "archives" link you mention above is on all the archive boxes and links to the template page. On that page it explains all the features of the archive box. Its talk page has an example. I see what you mean about the red link to my sandbox, it should be here: User:Chris_day/sandbox2. Feel free to ask mmore questions. Chris Day (Talk) 19:34, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

One more thing, I redirected my user page to my talk page. Then I only have to manage one page, although since you did not realise possibly this might be too confusing? You can see my publication list linked at the top of the talk page. Chris Day (Talk) 19:38, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

Sorry, I hadn't noticed you'd already given the link to the discussion with Larry.

I displayed Template:Experimental using Internet Explorer and did not see any overlap with text. One thing that might be useful to solve the overlap problem is Template:- I've found elsewhere that it (or a version of it) can prevent overlap of text with boxes if placed between the two. Or maybe a simpler method of specifying colouring could be used?

Re the archive link: I really find this confusing. When someone clicks on "archives" they should see an archived talk page, not a template that explains where to find archived talk pages. At worst they should see an array of links to archived talk pages; but I think it's better to put the array of links right on the original talk page so a person can get to an archived talk page with a single click. Maybe we need to find a page that actually has archived talk pages to be able to demonstrate the template properly. --Catherine Woodgold 10:16, 8 April 2007 (CDT)

I'm not sure I understand you? The archive box is set up to give one click navigation. See Larry Sanger's talk page archive box for an example. He has three archives as well as his current talk page. Also, as i mentioned above, on the archive box talk page there is an example with four archives.

If the "archives" link is causing confusion the best thing is to get rid of it. It was intended as a link to explain the features of the archive box.

I'll try out the clear all syntax tht may well solve the problem. Chris Day (Talk) 12:29, 8 April 2007 (CDT)

Request update of template

I would like to have the template updated to the version of User:Catherine Woodgold/checklist v1.1. This version calls Template:Yes-or-no in order to reduce repetitive code, and also has a brief summary of the instructions. Note that if the new version is put in, then Template:Yes-or-no probably should also be edit-protected. --Catherine Woodgold 18:03, 28 April 2007 (CDT)

Sorry, I just never go around to it. It's now updated. --Larry Sanger 10:11, 13 May 2007 (CDT)

Instructions

Instructions should have examples for each entry. I screwed up the category on adding a checklist to Catalog of Italian cuisine. I used another article as a model and typed in "CZ:Food Science Workgroup" when just "Food science" works. If it happened to me, it will probably happen to others. Luigi Zanasi 11:47, 3 August 2007 (CDT)

Speaking of instructions, they are now displayed in duplicat here because Template:Checklist blank (which is transcluded here) also includes the very same text. Can someone please delete the second copy (here)? Thanks. J. Noel Chiappa 15:24, 25 February 2008 (CST)