Roan Kattouw wrote:
To get back to {{cite}}: the template itself contains no more than some logic to choose between {{Citation/core}} and {{Citation/patent}} based on the presence/absence of certain parameters, and {{Citation/core}} does the same thing to choose between books and periodicals. What's wrong with breaking up this template in, say, {{cite patent}}, {{cite book}} and {{cite periodical}}? Similarly, other multifunctional templates could be broken up as well.
While this is not a comment on merits of string functions in general, there are following wrong things with that approach:
- It is easier for users to remember the name of just a single template.
- Multiple templates that are separately maintained will diverge over time, for example same parameters might end being named differently.
- A new feature in one template can't be easily applied to another template.