Extension talk:HarvardReferences/Archive

Proposed changes
I think you're definitely on to something good and useful here. I just have a couple of questions/suggestions: Wouldn't it be better, instead of using the  tag, to use a   tag and then define the default superscript behavior in CSS within the default CSS template? This would allow different skins to display the references differently, or allow the behavior on printing to be different than the on-screen behavior. Also, to aid in this I think it might be wise to create a new CSS class more specific than "reference". COGDEN 22:05, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Style or links drawing may be changed in any time (it is not fundamentally), currently I've took it from Cite.php.X-romix 13:26, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm not keen on the highlighting being done by JS. This can easily be done by CSS like cite.php. See en:Help:Cite messages for the styling used by cite.php. --Gadget850 22:37, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * There is highligting being done by JS, but there is highligting done by CSS TOO, please turn off JS in your browser to test it. Some features will be disabled, but basic features is still working! (my browser is FireFox). X-romix 13:26, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Name
This isn't quite Harvard referencing as it is used by popular style guides like The Chicago Manual of Style or APA style. In those systems, any information already given in the text is omitted from the reference. For example (using your notation but omitting redundant information): "The week has seven days.[Doggett 1992:577]"

"Doggett claims calendar reforms are extraordinary events. [1992:578]"

"In 1992, Seidenmann and Wilkins claimed GMT should not be used for precise purposes. [:7]"

You can see that your system cannot be used exactly the same way as customary Harvard citations. Jc3s5h 22:53, 14 May 2010 (UTC)


 * [Doggett 1992:577] is Harvard reference? Partly realisation may be... X-romix 13:30, 15 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Harvard is more properly referred to as Parenthetical referencing: "the in-text citation is placed in parentheses after the sentence or part thereof that the citation supports, and includes the author's name, year of publication, and a page number where appropriate (Smith 2008, p. 1) or (Smith 2008:1)"


 * So, the style is not properly Harvard, but that should be an easy fix. By default, it should display as proper parenthetical referencing. By putting the leading and trailing parentheses and the page field into MediaWiki messages and wrapping them in a class, editors can customize the display. --Gadget850 16:19, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Questions
I presume there is some detection between external links in brackets and the bracket linked inline cites?

Is there error detection for inline cites without a matching defined reference or defined references without a matching inline cite?


 * Link [aaa] is not working (extension does not anything with it) if there is no anchor [*aaa] with exactly same name in bibliography. If there is links without anchor - it is not error situation - extension pass this as simple wiki-text and does not anything with it. X-romix 13:52, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Looking at your sample page, it is not obvious what the pulldown box at the end of the page does. If I select *, then all of the inline cites change to *; selecting - removes the inline cites. By default it shows enclyclo.co.uk, which I do not understand.
 * Ah- the * gives displays the cite tile as a hover.

It would be neater if this displayed in the sidebar and was more explanatory.

The pulldown prints— it needs to be wrapped in the noprint class, which may differ from one wiki to another. Cite.php gets around this by using MediaWiki messages for styling.

--Gadget850 22:56, 14 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I think that pulldown selector of links style can be moved into "Personal script" or "Gadget" (many users may prefer other style of links, and choose it as their own personal settings). This is only demonstration to users who do not like "big links" in a wiki-text. I think I'll remove it into separate JS. X-romix 13:52, 15 May 2010 (UTC)


 * If I understand correctly, Gadgets can only enable or disable. I you can get a pulldown selector into a Gadget, I will be very interested. The ability to customize will help make this more palatable. --Gadget850 16:56, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I'v made a sandbox to test extension

 * http://wikiext.org/index.php/Sandbox:Test_page - this is on my site. X-romix 13:56, 15 May 2010 (UTC)