Actually, after some discussion (on wikitech-l, I think it was) I made the numbering more flexible: There need to be different headings in the article for this to work, a single kind won't do. That is because some people decided to use headings for large fonts and nothing else :-(
Ah, that's what that piece of code is for. This function is one I stole directly from you without rewriting it, mainly because I wasn't sure what it was doing.
I don't think that's the right thing to do--code that accomodates misuse encourages misuse. Just like "defensive" coding--by hiding errors instead of highlighting them, you produce more. If people are using headings for things other than headings, or not using them in good nesting order, then they /should/ get bad results so that they'll have to fix it, or so that someone who sees the bad result will fix it.
I think I do, however, like having it under user control, but I'm not sure about that. I'd like to hear other opinions on whether or not the author should be able to force the numbering or supress it. 0
Maybe this helps: My *original* intention for the numbering was not only making the article more structured (in a way), but enabeling: 1. A short table of contents generated automatically from the headings, to be displayed at the beginning of the article, with links directly to the matching piece of text (and "UP" links there) 2. Based on this (the headings then would be marked with <a name="1.2.3">), linking to [[topix#subtopic]]. But, then I didn't know wether to link to the heading itself (a lot of typing, and the heading could change), or to the heading *number* (like [[topic#1.1]]), which can change as well. I refused to think any more about this issue, and wrote some other half-working special page instead;)
Magnus
-----Original Message----- From: wikipedia-l-admin@nupedia.com [mailto:wikipedia-l-admin@nupedia.com]On Behalf Of lcrocker@nupedia.com Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 9:19 PM To: wikipedia-l@nupedia.com Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Numbered section headings within an article
Actually, after some discussion (on wikitech-l, I think it was) I made the numbering more flexible: There need to be different headings in the article for this to work, a single kind won't do. That is because some people decided to use headings for large fonts and nothing else :-(
Ah, that's what that piece of code is for. This function is one I stole directly from you without rewriting it, mainly because I wasn't sure what it was doing.
I don't think that's the right thing to do--code that accomodates misuse encourages misuse. Just like "defensive" coding--by hiding errors instead of highlighting them, you produce more. If people are using headings for things other than headings, or not using them in good nesting order, then they /should/ get bad results so that they'll have to fix it, or so that someone who sees the bad result will fix it.
I think I do, however, like having it under user control, but I'm not sure about that. I'd like to hear other opinions on whether or not the author should be able to force the numbering or supress it. 0
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