Template talk:Lopbn-pempty

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The first parameter is a string with no spaces, beginning with a Capital, and with any further characters being lower case.
The second parmeter must be a single char, as must the optional third one.
The "Pipe"-char delimiting the 3rd parameter is required even when the param is null.

The content generated is meant to be the initial content of a specific corresponding page of LoPbN; its title begins "List of people by name: " and ends with the title of the second heading. The call of the template should probably always be via subst:. The reason is that

• many of the pages created using it will eventually get names added, so that usually (always if the heading is a range) the heading becomes too broad, and in some cases the initial 2nd section will need to be subdivided into several sections at the same level as the generated section title -- i.e., that title will disappear, rather than having the new sections subordinate to it -- and
• even the pages that remain permanently entry-free should not be restructured or reformatted by changing this template, since the others that have gone beyond what the template can provide will no longer be template transclusions, and can change in response to changes in the template only by being individually edited.
  --Jerzy•t 03:29, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
  

[edit] Esoteric template

_ _ Hmm. The Esoteric-template's text is

• This template contains one or more optional parameters: see the talk page for details.
• This template employs some extremely complicated and esoteric features of template syntax. Please do not attempt to alter it unless you are certain that you understand the setup and are prepared to repair any consequent collateral damage if the results are unexpected. Any experiments should be conducted in the template sandbox or your user space.

And, yes, if you'll check the history you'll see that i put {{esoteric}} into {{Lopbn-lfront}}, so you might logically conclude that i believe {{Lopbn-lfront}} has an optional parameter.
_ _ Well, it does have an optional. See template talk:Esoteric. But (IMO more to the point) it utilizes {{Qif}} (which uses optional parameters and is at least exotic and perhaps thoroughly esoteric) for handling its optional. IMO, the cautions about it, and about editing this template, are well-founded. It's my opinion that what i've written is reliable, but i don't think revisions of it are as likely to inherit reliability as were those of all the non-"exotic" MediaWiki templates i've writ previous to this week.
_ _ Bottom line: edit carefully, after serious study of the existing markup and the Qif template, and better yet, don't edit. "Dingo's gonna bite you in the ass."
--Jerzy•t 10:28, 25 March 2006 (UTC)