Category talk:Unit display

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[edit] Are these obsolete?

Copied from Template talk:Unit ha#International acre or US survey acre:

This template is superseded by more general ones, such as {{Convert}} and as it is not used at all, it's obsolete. – Caroig (talk) 19:12, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

If that is the case should use of these templates in articles be changed to use {{Convert}} after which these would be deleted? Apart from {{Unit m}} and {{Unit ft}} they are used very little. The Wikipedia:WikiProject Mountains does advise using them. -- Patleahy 22:58, 10 April 2007 (UTC)
I created them once when {{Convert}} didn't exist. I guess it can supersede them all. – Caroig (talk) 03:56, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

PLEASE do not delete these templates or convert any articles where they are used. They are not obsolete at all. Compared to the newer {{convert}}, they offer several advantages:

  • Simplicity, they do exactly what is needed without too many extra options.
  • Ease of typing: it is much quicker to type {{Unit m|232|0}} to get 232 m (761 ft), than {{convert|232|m|ft|0|abbr=on|lk=on}} (what a mess!) to get the same thing: 232 m (761 ft)
  • There is no support for volume yet in {{convert}}, while these templates include 6 volumetric ones.

Just because {{convert}} now exists, that does not make these templates obsolete or subject to deletion. There is no harm to Wikipedia in leaving them as is, no need to delete them, and they have many advantages as outlined above. Also, they are currently transcluded in 100s of articles (primarily mountains and volcanoes), and it would be counterproductive to convert all of them for no reason. The two different templates serve different needs: {{Unit ...}} for quick typing of simple conversions, and {{convert}} when more complicated options are required. They complement each other nicely, and Wikipedia is better off if both are retained.

If Caroig no longer wishes to maintain the templates which he created in this category, then I will be happy to take over their long-term maintenance. Thanks. --Seattle Skier (talk) 20:31, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm neither going to delete them nor do any changes in them. I was only replying to a post originally at Template talk:Unit ha#International acre or US survey acre. I once created those templates for the Category:Geobox series but later switched to other ones and stopped maintaining any templates from the Category:Unit display series. If anyone finds them useful, there's no reason to delete them. – Caroig (talk) 20:55, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
Thank you both for answering my questions. I learned that these templates are in fact not obsolete. I will continue to use them. I too will help maintain them. -- Patleahy 22:23, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spell out units in the text

The Units of measurement section of Manual of Style says "Spell out units in the text." I intend to add some templates to this category which show the primary unit spelled out followed by the secondary unit abbreviated in prentices, e.g. {{Unit millimeter|100|0}} would render 100 millimetres (4 in). I could have achieve this by adding an optional parameter to the existing templates however I believe adding new templates is in keeping with the intention of these templates, i.e. to provide a very simple to use alternative to {{Convert}} for editors. Any thoughts? -- Patleahy 20:06, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

I created the following: {{Unit mile}}, {{Unit square mile}}, {{Unit foot}}, {{Unit kilometre}}. I'm not inclined to create more of these spelled in full versions as most of the templates in this category are only used in a handful of articles, if are used at all. -- Patleahy 23:18, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Adding "lk" and "sing" flags and dropping single unit version

These templates can be used with just one argument to display a measurement without an alternative unit, e.g. {{Unit mile|100}} will display "100 miles". Is there a compelling reason for supporting this usage? I did a search of the database dumb from 16 July 2007 and found only one example of this usage. In that case using an alternative unit was more appropriate.[1]

I ask this question because I intend to add "lk" and "sing" flags to these templates. These would work the same way as those in {{convert}}. The "sing" flag would only be added to the spelt out versions of these templates (e.g. {{Unit kilometre}}). I am doing this to allow these templates be used in a grammatically correct way in sentences and to comply with the Manual of Style Units section which says that only the first use of a unit should be wikilinked.

I suggest that when a rounding factor is not entered the templates act as if 9 were entered. This is the same as {{convert}}. This would encourage people to add alternative units. It would reduce the implementation of the spelt out version of these templates by half by dropping support for something nobody is using. -- Patleahy (talk) 23:12, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

  • I strongly support adding the "lk" parameter. I have primarly used {{convert}} because it provides this option while these unit specific templates currently do not. RedWolf 23:33, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to go ahead and do what I proposed here. -- Patleahy (talk) 02:47, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

I made these changes and documented them. To make it easer to document future changes I changed all the templates to use the same style of documentation. Next week I will go through the articles which use these templates and add the "| lk=on" flag to the first instance of each one I find. -- Patleahy (talk) 21:46, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
Since there are a number of discussions about converting measures here, here and here. I will hold off making more changes until I know how it all pans out. -- PatLeahy (talk) 17:37, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Deprecated some templates

In order for a new version of {{Convert}} to come online. Various "Unit X" templates will have to be deprecated to template:Convert. When these versions have been replaced and the new version of convert is up and running, then the other Unit display templates can be replace by the new convert. The new version of convert will be able to do the same stuff as how the Unit display templates were set up. For example {{convert|77|F}} instead of {{convert|77|F|C|0}}. —MJCdetroit 20:58, 12 November 2007 (UTC)