On 25/05/2005, at 4:34 AM, Rowan Collins wrote:
No, I'm afraid not - parameters have to be explicitly referred to within the template. There have been calls for optional parameters, or even more complex "macro"-like structures, but there has been resistance amongst the core developers to introducing too much complexity and ending up with the template code acting as an interpretter for a whole new language.
The best you can do in the meantime is pass the parameters empty, and style your template so it doesn't look too ugly with them missing. In the example you give, it would make sense to use un-named parameters ({{{1}}}, {{{2}}}, {{{3}}}, etc), so that you could call the template as something like {{car colours|red|blue|green| | | | | | | | | | | }} (where the template actually always displays 10 colours, but here leaves the last 7 as " ")
This makes sense. The Macro or Dynamic templates may well be too confusing for the average Wiki contributor given that they're quickly approaching a basic programming language. Even standard templates are confusing enough for many people. One thing on my long-term ToDo list is to look at providing HTML forms for people to enter information in to Wiki templates. This will provide another layer of abstraction over the MediaWiki editing function. More technical contributors are fine with this, but others do find the Wiki markup code complex.
I'll try that {{{1}}},{{{2}}},{{{3}}} example though, thanks. -- rik