On 20/05/05, closedshop <closedshop(a)gmx.de> wrote:
So if in WMWS fo this keyword a "=" headline
is created, this headline
is shown as well in all language-wikis and, in the board to edit WMWS,
there are then all headline translated
E.g.
1. Introduction
French: entree
german: Einfühung
Then the Headline of level 1 (=) cannot be edited in the language wiki,
only in the meta wiki
If I understand you correctly, you are proposing that a standard set
of headings be made mandatory for all articles. My instant reaction is
that this is extremely un-wiki, but I'll go further and justify why it
is a Bad Idea.
Firstly, not all articles are the same - some will not be long enough
to require an "introduction", some subjects may naturally suggest a
structure where nothing ends up in a catch-all "introduction", and so
on. The beauty of the wiki is of course that everything is editable,
and making certain parts of the structure ineditable would just lead
to awkward articles which had been "force-fitted" into that structure.
For something like "Wiktionary", there is more scope for enforcing
structure, because all the articles *will* fall into the same pattern
(although having looked at the introduction to the Oxford English
Dictionary recently I realise how many allowances a standard structure
needs to have to deal thoroughly with an entire language).
Secondly, it's not clear how this would work for anything other than
the "Introduction" example you give. "See also", "External
links", and
"References" sections seem like good candidates for standardisation,
but because they come at the end, and each may or may not be there,
how could the software tell them from non-standardised headers, which
will always be specific to the article - unless conventions are
changed radically to have all headings inside the content at a lower
level than "Introduction", "See also", etc (under a
"Content" heading
or somesuch). And even then, how do you determine whether to say
"External link" or "External links"; and when not all are present,
which non-editable headings are shown?
On a final, more trivial, point, it should be noted that "=
First-level headings =" are by convention never used, since this is
the same level as the article title; the highest level used for normal
headings is "== The next level down ==".
My apologies if I've misunderstood your original intention, and even
if not, feel free to disagree with my reasoning.
--
Rowan Collins BSc
[IMSoP]