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User:Retro/Templates/Titles

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Terminology

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TODO: argument, parameter, tplarg, transclusion, substitution, "template" (in the broader context it's sometimes used, less restrictive than that of the template; it's also sometimes used synonymously with "transclusion"), parser function, magic word, etc. (I wonder if I can utilize existing lists; ideally one would already exist somewhere in the "Wikipedia" namespace. Wikipedia:Template glossary should exist, either as the primary page or as a redirect.)

Note this uses {{term}}, {{defn}}, and {{gli}}: I am interested in these templates and their usage and will probably want to look into Wikipedia glossaries more in the future.

Metatemplate
A template that has a primary purpose of being used in other templates.
Transclusion
The main method of using templates. Pages in the template namespace are trancluded using the wikicode {{<Template name>}}, where <Template name> is the template's title. For namespaces other than the template namespace, prefixing with the name of the namespace is required for the transclusion to work properly.
Wrapper
A template that produces the same type of result as another template and transcludes that other template.

Terminology notes

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  • "Metatemplate" has many other definitions; I can imagine one referring to Template A as a "metatemplate" of Template B if Template B transcludes Template A. I can also imagine the term being used more strictly in certain contexts. However, there are clearly wrong usages, like referring to wrappers as "metatemplates".
  • Regarding "transclusion":I don't know how to transclude pages in mainspace. I am familiar with LST.
  • I think my current definition of "wrapper" is not precise enough, because "same type of result" is a bit vague. I interpret the term strictly, where if Template A wraps Template B, everything Template A can display can be displayed by Template B.

Search links:

Namespaces
Template Category
metatemplate intitle: 2 0
insource: 46 0
plural intitle: 1 4
plural insource: 115 19
plain 217 19
meta template intitle: 2 0
insource: 189 12
plural intitle: 0 2
plural insource: 66 4
plain 32,407 12
plural plain 592 5
wrapper intitle: 13 13
insource: 988 27
plural intitle: 0 3
plural insource: 325 7
plain 1,854 33
wrap intitle: 17 18
insource: 1,072 22
plural intitle: 9 3
plural insource: 130 6
plain 2,642 1,403

Abbreviations

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Templates names that are abbreviations are often moved to the title using the unabbreviated form. There are many examples:

Sidebars/navboxes

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Sidebars and navbox templates are often titled the same as the parent topic's article title, with an occasional "sidebar" or "navbox" suffix. For more specific sidebars, there's often local conventions.

"Wikipedia" prefix

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I need to read some guidelines to understand when prefixing categories with "Wikipedia" is ideal. I would like to do a comprehensive search of all the categories starting with "Wikipedia", then find how many have a corresponding non-Wikipedia category, and of those, find how many with a non-Wikipedia category solely contain articles.

  • I get that Category:Wikipedia featured content is a WP:maintenance category, and Category:Featured content is to hold categories that contain the Wikipedia's featured content but how is it useful to separate in this way? It seems redundant.
  • Category:Wikipedia featured portals vs. Category:Featured portals: here, there are actually different pages, with one having "Portal" namespace pages, and the other having "Portal talk" namespace pages.
  • Category:Header templates vs. Category:Wikipedia header templates: Appears there is mutual non-awareness.