Template talk:Future software

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[edit] Future software

This template began life saying, "This article or section contains information about a program that is under development." This has always been a problem because, well, isn't most software under development in some fashion? I could slap such a template on the top of Mac OS X, Gmail or any number of software pages and it would be technically correct, but pointless to state.

I've changed the template to read, "This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future software." Two reasons for this. One, it's more in line with other {{future ____}} templates; have a look through Category:Temporal templates and see how most of the rest of them read. This new text is much closer to the wording seen in other templates. Second, it addresses the issue of temporality itself: The article will discuss software that is still "in the future", i.e. it hasn't been released, but has been talked about by verifiable sources. This is also in line with what is done elsewhere on Wikipedia.

I hasten to add that the point here is to reduce the usage of this template so that it only applies to software that isn't available. If a piece of software has been released in "Beta", "Pre-release" or "Snapshot" form, then this template shouldn't be applied. Something that exists in the here and now, and can be described in the present tense, is certainly not future software. It's just software at that point.

Warrens 23:43, 27 May 2006 (UTC)