{{Convert}} on Wikipedia isn't one single fancy template, it is actually several hundred. I ran Special:Export and told it to include all the sub template, and I got back a file with 394 pages, a few of them might be documentation, but you get the idea. I'd love to see this sort of functionality be put into MediaWiki somewhere, rather than crazy template hacking.

-Jon

PS. We tried to steal {{Convert}} on Wikipedia to use on Wikinews... we eventually gave up and stuck to the handful of separate templates we had before.

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 22:05, Jona Christopher Sahnwaldt < jcsahnwaldt@gmail.com> wrote:

Why not just use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Convert ?

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 06:04, Sylvain Leroux sylvain@chicoree.fr wrote:

...

Hi,

There is an issue concerning unit conversions in wikitext: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=235

This one doesn't deserved any attention since a long time. The original proposition was about converting units "on the fly" regarding user

preferences.

...

I don't know if it is feasible and/or desirable.

I propose to work on something less ambitious: adding a parser function

to

...

provide conversion - maybe in ParserFunction.

The idea would be something like: {{#unit: 1000 ft|m}} => <span title="304m (1000ft)">304m</span>

If I start working on this, will anyone accept to review the code?

Thanks in advance, Sylvain.

-- sylvain@chicoree.fr http://www.chicoree.fr

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First of all, thanks for your replies.

In short, in my first message, I failed to explain the targeted use case - which has somehow moved away from BUG-235. So here it is: o I was targeting general MediaWiki wikis, not necessary Wikipedia o My primary concern was to allow an administrator to easily add support for conversion. Without relying on the end-users (the "contributors") good will or technical knowledge.

Now for the long answer.

wiki@konsoletek.com wrote:

{{Convert}} on Wikipedia isn't one single fancy template, it is actually several hundred.

I think it is actually several hundred with the new design (as of NOV-2009), but the old design was requiring several thousands (!) templates. According to [1] with the new design "new options could be implemented by changing just a few subtemplates, rather than hundreds at a time".

jcsahnwaldt@gmail.com wrote:

Why not just use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Convert ?

On its side, {{Convert}} has the advantage of being able to convert many different things. Keeping it with the vast diversity of knowledge carried by wikipedia (from converting musical notes to pitch [3] to converting weapon calibres [4], all of this with several different algorithms). Moreover, by working at "template level", any contributor is able to edit/update/fix it. Without requiring any special privilege.

Someone may argue that it has its own drawbacks[2], but anyway Wikipedia is a special case: it has enough manpower to fix and/or update both this template and the articles that uses (or should use) it.

This is simply not the case for the general MediaWiki user. I think of one "in house" wiki that requires handling of some fancy units. Like expressing quantities as kibibytes as well as kilobytes. Or express throughput as bytes/s or bits/s. Eventually using those values for producing embedded graphics. I don't think those units are supported by {{Convert}} now, and the point is that it requires a substantial amount of work for a non-specialist of that template to add support for them. For small wikis, I think it is more effective to let the administrator install a new extension or edit a few lines of PHP to provide the support for a new conversion.

Aryeh Gregor Simetrical+wikilist@gmail.com wrote:

...

The idea would be something like:

...

{{#unit: 1000 ft|m}} => <span title="304m (1000ft)">304m</span>

It would make more sense to have it output simply "304". That way it could be effectively used in a template to achieve any desired formatting.

I agree with that. In order to be effectively used in template, the "converter" should only perform the conversion and let the formating at the caller's charge.

Last, but not least, I spend a few hours this WE working on a prototype. It sounds promising. I intend to upload a demo in the following hours.

Best regards, Sylvain.

---- [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:A_plan_to_reduce_Convert_subtemplates [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Analysis_of_Template:Convert_problems [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Convert/note [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Convert/calibre

Aryeh Gregor a écrit :

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 12:04 AM, Sylvain Leroux sylvain@chicoree.fr wrote:

...

The idea would be something like: {{#unit: 1000 ft|m}} => <span title="304m (1000ft)">304m</span>

It would make more sense to have it output simply "304". That way it could be effectively used in a template to achieve any desired formatting.

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