Topic on Extension talk:TemplateData

Options to select different date formats

14
George Ho (talkcontribs)

I was given a suggestion at Topic:Unpy3y332x9rk1ji that I request some change on TemplateData to allow users to select different date formats. Here I am suggesting this especially for consistency with Wikipedia articles.

The current default format is "YYYY-MM-DD". I hope that the calendar feature would allow "DD Mon Year" and "Mon DD, Year" someday. If that is too complicated, alternatively, I made a suggestion there that an editor should have an option to manually type a date in a date parameter, similar to UploadWizard's.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talkcontribs)

This function already exists at the English Wikipedia, and some other wikis that have up-to-date copies of the CS1 modules. If you combine |date=2018-11-20 with |df=dmy, then it will automagically display the specified date format to the reader. Better still, this parameter is something that could be added via AWB or bot to every citation template in every article that has the {{use dmy dates}} template in it, and the corresponding codes could be added for other date formats. Then editors wouldn't need to switch back and forth between formats when editing different articles, or to specify anything manually.

George Ho (talkcontribs)

I see that it works on "date" parameter but not "accessdate" parameter; see this diff. BTW, scrolling down to see the "Date format" parameter amongst the "Optional parameters" column can be a pain; the column is very long.

EDIT: I re-tested the "URL access date" parameter; I realize that the auto date formatting is not supported for that parameter.

George Ho (talkcontribs)

I'm becoming annoyed that the calendar sub-feature won't allow inserting of month and year without day for monthly magazines.

197.218.93.56 (talkcontribs)

Whatamidoing: It won't solve the underlying problem. The issue is that it relies on ISO date which is deliberately limited. For instance it can't record any historical dates before the 1800s. The primary concern is that for a tool that is meant to serve multilingual wikis it fails to address the fact that there are several calendars (e.g. arabic, etc) currently in use around the world. It would be perfect if there was a single unambiguous calendar to denote all existing dates (both ancient and current), but such a convenient system doesn't exist. Dates are really complicated concepts.

George Ho: This extension is a bit like a documentation manual, it only specifies how things must work but it can't do anything to actually require that tools that implement it work that way. So while it certainly needs a way to determine how to format dates, or even specify different calendars it is up to each editing tool to implement it properly.

However, the request for adding just month and year needs to be logged in the specific extension talk page or the bug tracker because the ISO standard already supports it.

George Ho (talkcontribs)

You mean separate "Topic", right?

197.218.93.56 (talkcontribs)

Yes, either that or by following Bugreport, and reporting it to phabricator.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talkcontribs)
Whatamidoing (WMF) (talkcontribs)

> it relies on ISO date which is deliberately limited. For instance it can't record any historical dates before the 1800s.

True, but it's unlikely that websites, magazines, and news articles from the 1700s or earlier will be commonly cited on Wikipedia, right? ;-)

197.218.89.48 (talkcontribs)

Err, the principle of an encyclopedia is documenting historical events. Wikipedia has distorted that and basically become triviapedia as well as futurepedia, but even if one wants to talk about current events, it is easy to find cases that don't neatly fit into the Gregorian calendar, e.g. this article (https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%B0).

Feel free to try and explain how one would go about adding that date using the inflexible ISO. The same applies to historical dates on pages like https://lrc.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B5%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%DB%8C%D9%86_%D8%A3%DB%8C%DB%88%D8%A8%D9%8A.

Also, while the gregorian calendar is in the year 2018, the arabic calendar is current somewhere around 1441 (according to google). So recent news articles can demonstrably contain dates earlier than 1700.

The suggestion here is legitimate even if developers don't have the time or interest to implement it.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talkcontribs)

Even if you managed to find a website from the 1700s, most Wikipedias would discourage citing it.

197.218.88.14 (talkcontribs)

Either you're wildly confused or you simply don't understand what's being asked here. Some views seem to include:

  1. Emphasis on citations. Dates aren't only used in citations, they can be used in descriptions boxes containing a person born 1000 years ago, or in a quote template or in any number of near infinite use-cases.
  2. The notion that most Wikipedias use the gregorian calendar when citing current events. It is mostly irrelevant. A template can express dates using any calendar or even using localized digits.

The world doesn't revolve around English or even latin based calendars. To give a concrete example, today's date is 2018-11-13 (gregorian) === RabiÊ» I 5, 1440 (arabic calendar). There is nothing wrong with citing an event today, and state that it happened in 1440 nor is there anything wrong in citing the date using localized digits or calendars.

Introducing extra calendars to templatedata would resolve most problems remaining problems.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talkcontribs)

This feature is almost never used outside of a particular set of citation templates.

197.218.88.14 (talkcontribs)

The fact is the parameter was about as useful as bullets without a gun, all it did was document that a particular parameter accepts dates. Only recently, did it get some use by way of templatewizard. There are also more than 300000 templates (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Infobox_product/doc) currently using dates, along with a similar a hacky {{xxx|month|year|date}} format, that's without even counting uses outside the bigger wikis.

There was simply no motivation for anyone aside from bored users to add that templatedata definition to templates. The notion that it won't get used because it wasn't used before makes no sense. Guns didn't get used before they became available, now some people have gone as far as claiming that it is some sort of human right to wield such things.

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