Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 09:23:20 +0100 From: Timwi timwi@gmx.net To: wikitech-l@wikimedia.org

Jens Ropers wrote:

...

We don't actually have to move anything

If you want to introduce a new namespace (or namespace alias) called "X", for example, you *do* have to move all the pages whose title begins with "X:", or else they will become inaccessible.

Err... no, actually. It's just a matter of additional checks and PRECEDENCE when resolving. (See my previous mail and below.)

This is because an article "WP:SB" is actually an article with the title "WP:SB" in the article namespace, while an article "Wikipedia:SB" is actually an article with the title "SB" in the Wikipedia namespace. If you introduce a new namespace (or namespace alias) called "WP", the article [[WP:SB]] will still be in the article namespace, but the server will start looking for it in the new namespace and not find it.

Timwi

Things COULD be implemented as follows:

Let's assume we're looking for "Wikipedia:Sandbox". Now let's assume we're entering "WP:Sandbox". Assuming name resolution as I am proposing were implemented, the following would happen: FIRST the system would do name resolution as usual: This means if any article of "WP:Sandbox" existed in the article namespace, then this article would be resolved to. ONLY IF NO article named "WP:Sandbox" exists AND an article of "Wikipedia:Sandbox" exists, THEN "WP:Sandbox" will redirect to "Wikipedia:Sandbox". IF no article of "Wikipedia:Sandbox" existed, THEN it would show the standard "do you want to create an article?"-screen -- but this for "WP:Sandbox" (!)

As I said in my previous post, it's strictly a matter of precedence, a question of WHEN you check what. The option of whether to expand "WP" to "Wikipedia" will ONLY get checked AFTER ordinary article namespace resolution for WP:xyz has failed, but BEFORE the "do you want to create this article"-screen is shown.

All that said, I could understand why you might be weary of implementing such a solution -- it might be unnecessarily confusing to future maintainers of the system.

An alternative would be to create a bot that will sift through the Wikipedia database and automatically create ''individual'' redirects following the above rationale and order of checks. This might be a preferred option.

Thanks and regards, Jens Ropers

There are two types of IT techs: The ones who watch soap operas and the ones who watch progress bars. http://www.ropersonline.com/elmo/#108681741955837683