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I'm not a programmer of any sort, so I understand my suggestions here might be wildly unworkable or otherwise silly.

Template-related to-dos

(Mostly suggestions to make, I'm too afraid and inexperienced to try to make any changes myself so far.)

Possibilies for Template:Rp

  • Give Template:Rp MouseOver functionality.
    • Compare to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Reference_page
    • On Wikipedia, the reference page template has parameters of "|quote=" and "|q=", which if used will cause a quote to appear if a reader hovers their cursor over the superscripted page number. The MouseOver box will show the quote and the page number(s) where the quote is found. I think this would be useful on TG for a couple purposes.
      • First, I could supply quotes without making a separate References section entry for each quote. See Timeline/Second Age, where I felt the need to supply quotes to source the entries for years 730, 733, 735, 739, 824, 843, 850, 861, and 880, because those years aren't found in Arabic numerals that stick out to a reader combing through "The Mariner's Wife", you have to deduce them from the text, which would be tedious. (I could have used page numbers with Template:Rp, but I don't have a pre-1992 edition to cite from.) This means that where I could've put one entry in the References section for "The Mariner's Wife" minus "The Further Course of the Narrative" and "Notes", I now have at least six, which could be collapsed into one if the "|quote=" parameter worked.
      • Second, even in the absence of quoting a passage, it might be helpful to allow the reader to see the type of location the Template:Rp tag is referring to; page, pages, paragraph, paragraphs, or otherwise. For example, in Timeline/Second Age, I felt it was worth it to use the Template:Rp tags to specify the headers in The Line of Elros in Roman numerals, because it's not always obvious which king's entry will contain the relevant information. For instance, a reader might not know to look for Gimilkhad's birth and death years under the entry for Ar-Gimilzor, XXIII. But a casual reader might not know what these Roman numerals are referring to, the way we might expect them to figure that ### refer to pages and §§### refer to paragraphs. Parameters that give MouseOver windows can help with that.
        • (Maybe TG's Template:Rp already has parameters like these, but I haven't been able to make them work when trying.)
      • Also, see "Decide how much to simplify long {{rp}} tags" (at User:Yaulendil/Timeline ideas). A MouseOver box could contain such info (paragraph #, Note #, commentary paragraph #) where otherwise only the page # is given.
      • What are all the types of parameters TG could have?
        • the default parameter, that it currently has
        • |p= or |page=
        • |pp= or |pages=
          • I don't quite get the necessity of distinguishing everything by whether plural or singular since it's a string either way, but that's how Wikipedia does it.
        • |para= or |paragraph=
          • Maybe this could be used to automatically put § symbols in without having to select it from the Special characters menu, use keyboard shortcuts, or HTML codes. But by now I'm okay with using keyboard shortcuts whenever I do it. Still, maybe if you use |para= or |paras=, and you don't start it with § and §§, this parameter can automatically fill those in?
            • Also, I overlooked that there's another special character menu below the editing window. Oh, never mind, there's no § symbol down there.
        • |paras= or |paragraphs=
        • |dtp= or |cite-dtp=
          • For the trailing-end DTP addresses (.###, .##.###, XX.##.###) detailed above below.
        • |dtp-full= or |dtp-link=
          • If the trailing end of a DTP address is going to be clickable as a link, then it would need the full DTP address to make a link to the DTP website's entry for that full address. (Since I doubt you would want to try to make the page reference template somehow get info from the preceding ref.)
        • |line=
          • For citing from the Lays, maybe some poems.
            • But would there ever be a reason to quote by lines when you could quote by page and would need to cite the book the poem or lay is in anyway? I guess a little more specificity and time saved in finding the lines on the page.
            • As long as you can specify what lay or poem within the text these lines are for. You couldn't do a general citation to HoMe III and then cite some lines, you'd have to specify whether it's Lay of the Children I, Lay of the Children II, Lay of Leithian, Lay of Leithian Recommenced, however many different works there are that count lines fresh from 1.
        • |lines=
        • |location= or |loc= or |at=
          • Would I use this for the Roman numerals in The Line of Elros? Might be a moot question since someone could just use the pre-1992 pages or DTP once it's ready and there might be no other cases like this.
        • |quote= or |quotation= or |q=
        • |quote-page= or |quotation-page= or |qp=
        • |quote-pages= or |quotation-pages= or |qpp
        • |quote-para= or |quotation-paragraph= etc.
        • |quote-paras= or |quotation-paragraphs= etc.
        • |quote-line=
        • |quote-lines=
        • |quote-dtp=
          • Too redundant since they could just click a link to DTP?
        • |quotation-location= or |quote-loc= or |quote-at= etc.
        • |language= or |quote-language= etc.
          • Could be helpful if in Elvish, Anglo-Saxon, etc.
        • |translation= or |translation-quote= etc.
        • |non-quote=
          • I forgot, this would probably be the most useful thing, and something that the Wikipedia template doesn't have. For things other than quotes to be seen on a MouseOver window, like if the tag is just :456, the MouseOver could say "p. 456 [<br>] Note 8" or "p. 456 [<br>] Commentary on §55".
            • Wait, does |at= already do that?
              • I don't think so, I think it puts strings on the main superscripted part.
          • Maybe this sort of MouseOver could be generated automatically if there are multiple parameters, like if you do |p=456 and |lines=1003–12 it will automatically generate :456 with a MouseOver giving "p. 456 [<br>] Lines 1000–12".
            • This might be possible using #ifeq or #if somehow.
        • |note=
          • When combined with |p= parameter, you could get "Note #" under the p. ### in a MouseOver.
        • |comment-para=
          • When combined with |p= parameter, you could get "Commentary on §#" under the p. ### in a MouseOver.
        • |comment-paras=
    • Should I use a dashed underline, like Wikipedia does? Or a dotted underline, like I've seen elsewhere?
      • Let's see if this works: I hope this is a dotted underline. Yep, that works. Now :789. Now another test. Oh hey, didn't even need to change the px size. Superscript.:789
        • I guess that worked, the reference page label is probably a specifically smaller size of superscript though I bet.
    • I can't find any info about how to get hover/MouseOver boxes/text from scratch on MediaWiki.
    • Note that some things I read might imply that some browsers won't be able to use these? Because of CSS or something?
      • Maybe that's why I can't find examples of making a MouseOver box, maybe it's rolled up in some CSS module somewhere else on the sites.
        • I see a:hover pop up in something called "Monobook".
        • Let's see: Testing. Nope, that does nothing.
        • Looks like these are called "tooltips". Maybe even the utilitarian-looking black boxes on Wikipedia's reference page template is a tooltip.
          • Testing: <tooltip text="This should appear when you hover the cursor.">This should appear on the page and be hovered over.</tooltip>
            • Nope!
          • Testing: This should appear on the page and be hovered over.This should appear when you hover the cursor.
            • It acts like a recognized template but the second parameter just disappears, not a MouseOver.
              • Oh no, it worked!
                • How about
                  • Hm, I guess it doesn't work when you put superscript and font stuff within the parameters?
                    • :789"All that glitters is not gold."
                      • Does not spit out the second parameter. (Or maybe it just doesn't load on the preview? Maybe that's why I thought it didn't work the first time.)
                        • But I don't like that it changes my cursor to a pointing hand instead of leaving it an over-text cursor like Wikipedia does. And I don't know if it will take a <br> in it. Testing.:789p. 789
                          "All that glitters is not gold."
                        • Okay, so you can't put those code things in the first parameter, but you can in the second parameter. But honestly, at this point I should have all the tools to make my own crude template.
  • Establish a way for Template:Rp, or a parallel template, to prevent too many Cite DTP refs for the same text from making the References section overlong.
    • The problem: Template:Cite DTP is currently the preferred template for citing from Lord of the Rings aside from the Appendix and The Silmarillion. Eventually it will likely be usable for Unfinished Tales. And it is (or will be) especially useful for The Silmarillion where citing page numbers is discouraged due to there being no agreed-on edition, and for UT where you need a pre-1992 edition to cite page numbers. But what if you end up citing a hundred different paragraphs from the same book? That would create a hundred individual references in the References section, which can be avoided with other citation methods by using Template:Rp, but can't be avoided with Cite DTP.
    • Possible solution: Give Template:Rp a parameter, or make another version of Template:Rp, so that a trailing part of a DTP citation can be appended to a ref tag that links to a leading part of the DTP citation in the References section.
    • Another possible solution: Group many specific Cite DTP references together in bulleted lists under an umbrella reference for that book, part, or chapter.

Subpages to experiment in

User:Yaulendil/Template/Rp expanded

References