Talk:Testing Projects/@comment-5222017-20120823181805

The table is cool! :-)

We could make it much easier to maintain, however, if we used templates within it, specifically so that the names and pictures of currently active dinos don’t have to be hardcoded. Why is hardcoding this information uncessarily complex and error-prone? Because the same information is shown in different places and contexts and replicating it via copy-and-paste every time invariably leads to errors.

I propose a template structure such as ⟨⟨Tier3TundraActive⟩⟩ etc. that would give the name (with link to that dino”s page) of the appropriate dino. When another dino becomes active for that tier-biome combination, we’d only have to change one name in this one template – and all tables across the entire wiki will be up to date. Much less maintanance work, no? In addition, such templates are much easier to change – much easier than the current spagghetti code of the current table with all the name of dinos hardcoded.

There’s be a master template, say, ⟨⟨TierActive⟩⟩, so that ⟨⟨Tier3TundraActive⟩⟩ and its brethren would look very simple, e.g., ⟨⟨TierActive|Giant Sloth⟩⟩. That’s it!

There could also be a single additional template to give the picture, e.g., ⟨⟨TierActivePicture⟩⟩, which would be envoked with a single parameter, which in turn is the tier-biome-specific template, e.g., ⟨⟨TierActivePicture|⟨⟨Tier3TundraActive⟩⟩⟩⟩.

Another naming structure would be fine, of course — perhaps as short as ⟨⟨DA3tundra⟩⟩? — the above is just for illustration.

Thoughts? (I’d be happy to help with implementation, but am hesitant for now after my recent experience with Oioiaussie — see her wall if you are curious.)