[WikiEN-l] Template documentation convention

[Ilmari Karonen]

Steve Bennett wrote:
> Hi all,
>   Anyone know if there is a convention/guideline for how to document
> templates, given the existence of <noinclude>? Previously, the
> discussion page was used. Now it would seem more appropriate to move
> documentation onto the main template page, inclosed within
> <noinclude>. However, before launching into doing this, two questions:
> 
> * Is there consensus for this?
> * Is there more of a burden on the surver to transclude a template
> which includes a large amount of <noinclude>'d documentation?

Any edits to the template itself, even to <noinclude> sections, force a 
purge of every page using the template.  For widely used templates, this 
may be a significant cost.  Thus, I'd recommend keeping only the most 
basic and stable documentation on the template page itself, and put the 
rest on the talk page.  In fact, for the majority of templates, the only 
"documentation" needed on the template page is the default rendering of 
the template code itself.

But that's just my opinion.

-- 
Ilmari Karonen