Wiktionary:Grease pit/2009/April

= April 2009 =

Need an option so that searching is not so sensitive to accents
I think it would be extremely useful if an option could be set so that accent marks on letters are ignored when searching for a word.

For example if I type in "elementaire" in the search bar I will receive no search results even though I am intending to search for "élémentaire".

I think for many people (particularly English speakers learning a language) it can be much easier for them to type without accents, and it can be a huge annoyance that the search box is so sensitive to accents.

All the best.---


 * I believe our new search is better, but we have to wait until the admins enable it here - it's already on the English Wikipedia if you want to test it. Conrad.Irwin 21:36, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

older changes to watchlist
, I wasn't here since March 16 and would like to see the changes tothe edits I madejust before  leavin as I learn a lot from them-- is there a way2  See them?--史凡 10:43, 3 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Just click on "my contributions" near the top right. Seems to be edits to the beer parlour. SemperBlotto 10:47, 3 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Or do you mean subsequent changes made by other people following your edits? SemperBlotto 10:49, 3 April 2009 (UTC)


 * If you click on the "all" link in the watchlist options box, it will show changes for the last 30 days. So it will go back to March 4th as of now. Robert Ullmann 11:15, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Talk:opposable
At Talk:opposable, there's an ominous looking "loop detected" flashing about on the page - any idea why it doesn't just show ? --Jackofclubs 15:08, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

I use FF/Win. I have a few misc. Wiki prefs, too. DCDuring TALK 18:17, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

{context}
Context is acting all screwy this morning, complaining about loops it never complained about before. Did the MediaWiki software get an update this morning to cause this? — Carolina wren discussió 15:38, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Should now be fixed. See next two sections. Conrad.Irwin 16:34, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

“Template loop detected: Template:context 1”, whatever that means…
Seems to be causing problems, as, for example, here and here. Just FYI. †  ﴾(u):Raifʻhār (t):Doremítzwr﴿ 16:18, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Also happens with - see dog as an example. SemperBlotto 16:27, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Should now be fixed. see next section. Conrad.Irwin 16:32, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Recursive templating
Thanks to recent software upgrades the trick of using redirects to get around the recursion filter no longer works. I have fixed Template:context, if there are other recursive templates they need fixing too. Conrad.Irwin 16:31, 5 April 2009 (UTC)


 * It is insane (and utterly incompetent from a professional POV) how "they" break things as if it doesn't make the slightest difference that we have to scramble to fix them. With no notice whatsoever. And this was not a "trick": it is (was) the standard, recommended method of doing various things. (see meta:Help:Template.


 * May (as would be typical) be a side-effect of some "helpful" change to the code. Some of the people making changes seem much more concerned with gratuitous re-factorings and cosmetic changes that then break things right and left. Robert Ullmann 13:08, 9 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Nope, on asking in #wikimedia-tech I was told that this was done deliberately. I believe they found a way to do infinite recursion with it, and so decided it wasn't so much fun anymore. Conrad.Irwin 13:34, 9 April 2009 (UTC)


 * (the point of having numbered redirects was so that it couldn't be infinite?) That is then much worse: they broke existing function on purpose without announcing it in advance? If they worked for me their asses would be fired. It really is appalling sometimes. What do they propose replacing it with? (never mind, very silly question)


 * I'm not aware of anywhere else we are using this. But the other wikts that use {context} are going to be broken, and justifiably pissed. And other non-WMF wikis will break as well (of course, if they are smart, they avoid updates as long as possible ;-) Robert Ullmann 13:53, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

use file: namespace in {audio}?
I think it's safe to move from media: and image: for this template now. Circeus 18:42, 8 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Has been safe for a while. But do note that "image:" is not deprecated, it will permanently be an alias for file:, and note that media: doesn't mean the same thing. (-) Robert Ullmann 13:10, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

.Orya
This class should have a font size of 125%. My eyes bleed from trying to recognize the consonants, and similar scripts like .Deva and .Beng already have a font size increase. -- Prince Kassad 20:32, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Recent changes oddity
Special:Recent changes (with patrolled edits hidden) jumps from the end of the 14th April to the start of the 16th. SemperBlotto 07:30, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

donger and entrée as Australian French?
For some reason (I assume a screw-up with ), both donger and entrée are categorized in Category:Australian French. --Jackofclubs 16:52, 16 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Yup. Both  and  assume a default of French and it propagates to later context markers in the series unless an explict   is given.  Fixed, but we now have redlink categories in Category:African English and Category:European English. — Carolina wren discussió  17:53, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I think you could say that there is no such thing as "European English" (cf. in Quebec, what is taught is not "Quebec English", nor is English taught in Japan "Japanese English"). It's fairly safe to assume Europe follows mostly British usage. Circeus 06:03, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Showing image
On the page Ⅎ I can't seem to show an image that works perfectly on Letterlike Symbols. What am I doing wrong? --Bequw → ¢ • τ 18:09, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
 * It was only on Wikipedia not Wikimedia commons, now it's on both. Conrad.Irwin 18:27, 16 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks. --Bequw → ¢ • τ 19:43, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

More broken template stuff
At the top of each page I visit I'm seeing things like  and   rather than the usual boxes. Is this related to the template issues above or is it something else? Equinox ◑ 22:16, 17 April 2009 (UTC)
 * It's a bug with mw:Extension:CentralNotice. The sysadmins will fix it eventually, one presumes. Conrad.Irwin 22:19, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Random page, worth keeping on the sidebar?
In the last week or so, I've tried using the Random page function (random page by language). However, each time it fails. I recommend this link be removed from the sidebar, until it works again, as it could frustrate some users. I assume only administrators can change the sidebar and interface, right? --Jackofclubs 12:37, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
 * It should be gone in a minute or two (when the message cache purges the sidebar). Conrad.Irwin 20:31, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Latin irregular verb conjugation
Was looking over a few irregular verbs for a general idea of the Latin language and came across do, and was wondering why Firefox renders the tables with something like this:

style="background: rgb(251, 252, 228) none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"

It isn't in the wiki-text... Also, should this be templated and/or converted to CSS? -- 203.171.195.168 18:07, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Default style aren't in the wikitext, they're in the site's higher css material. Furthermore I'm fairly sure some of those are Firefox internal default css (yes! Firefox has an explicit default css it applies to everything, and you can actually edit it IIRC). Circeus 19:55, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes but CSS is done separately, they shouldn't be editing the page source (?). I think Wiktionary is configured to generate differently for Firefox. -- 203.171.195.168 20:09, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * It's not in the page source. I'm guessing that you copied that from a DOM inspector (or the like)? If so, you're apparently seeing the CSS that Firefox is providing, not anything that Wiktionary is sending it. —Ruakh TALK 20:18, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Ah you're right. I didn't know it did that. Thanks -- 203.171.195.168 20:27, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Snippets in search results
I've noticed that when searching for a word in Google or Yahoo, you have to click on the link to get the definition in most dictionaries. It would be much more convenient to have wiktionary somehow let the search engine put the definition in the snippet that comes with the listing.

Using the word transcendent as an example, Google and Microsoft fail-

http://www.google.com/search?q=transcendent

http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=transcendent

Yahoo/Altavisa do a reasonably good job-

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=transcendent

http://www.altavista.com/web/results?q=transcendent

I don't know if it's technically possible, but it would be nice if Wiktionary gave the search engines some kind of hint of what to include in the listings.

IP block exempt
I see that admins now are able via special:userrights to set someone as IP block exempt (i.e., that he is exempt from IP blocks, as admins and I think bots are). This is, I think, new(ish). Just thought I'd point it out here.—msh210 ℠  21:25, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Wikisaurus bot idea
An idea that occurred to me: how hard would it be to make a bot that would go through the Wikisaurus: namespace and add the appropriate template to terms in the "synonyms" section(s)? Circeus 23:43, 28 April 2009 (UTC)