Wikibooks:Reading room/Archives/2010/November

Splitting a book
I've been considering giving each error message on GCC Notebook it's own page using the error message as the title, but some of them are extremely long and/or contain non alpha-numeric characters. I've looked the official naming policy page and the style guides, but didn't find anything specific related to page name length or special characters to avoid. Are there any set restrictions or recommendations in those two areas? Phosgram (talk) 06:46, 9 November 2010 (UTC)


 * "/" is used to separate a book's name from chapter and page names. ":" is used to separate works into different namespaces. Those two characters should be considered special characters to avoid reusing with a different meaning. I suggest no more than 3 to 5 words for chapter or page names, because longer titles can be harder for people to remember, to find, and to retype correctly. Some GCC documents I've read group related error messages, that could possibly be more useful for readers than giving each error its own page. You should also consider that error messages can change from version to version and that might be another reason to group errors than to give each error its own page. --dark lama  11:15, 9 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Avoiding just those 2 characters shouldn't be a problem. I'm not sure about 3 to 5 words per page name, that might be overly limiting, maybe 5 to 7 (this would be just for error message pages). I had planned on grouping error messages that had the same, or almost the same, root cause, but I don't want to over-group as I think I'd lose too much context.  I mainly wanted the book to be a verbose reference for resolving errors and code bugs reported by GCC's C/C++ compilers as I've yet to find a good one, but didn't want to title it "g++ errors" as that's probably too narrow a scope. I was thinking of changing the title to something like "Debugging with GCC" before splitting it up though. Differing error messages shouldn't be a problem, I planned on including sample source code that would produce the error message on the error pages (something like this), so it wouldn't be too difficult to keep track of changes. Thanks for the advice. Phosgram (talk) 04:35, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Bamboozled by book Categories
OK. So I want the Trigonometry book to appear both under 'geometry' and under 'K12-mathematics' under the Subject:Mathematics listing. My attempts to do so are not working. What am I doing wrong? JamesCrook.


 * You want to add to Trigonometry. --dark  lama  13:19, 11 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Sorry for some mistakes in reporting what I'm trying to do. I'm still not getting the book Trigonometry to appear at the page Subject:K-12_mathematics.  Could you make the change please and then I can look and see what you actually did?  Does a cache need to be flushed or something? JamesCrook (talk) 21:25, 11 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Since both K-12 mathematics and Geometry appear at the bottom of Trigonometry, you can be confident that they will show up at Subject:K-12 mathematics. In fact, they already appear for me.  A cache does need to be flushed.  To simplify this for you in the future, visit Special:Preferences, click the Gadgets tab, and then check the box for the Add purge tab gadget and save the page.  Then visit the subject page, hover over the drop-down arrow and choose the "p" option to purge the page.  Alternatively, add ?action=purge to the URL of the subject page. – Adrignola talk 21:34, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Bamboozled by categories? -- Take a ticket! (Armchair, 25/11/10, UTC 13:05)

Relative measure for Images?
Can anybody please tell me? ...Is there a facility to use relative measure for image sizing?

That is to say, instead of expressing an image size in only pixels. This would allow users to better design layouts that can adapt to the screen size of the reader. This is particularly desirable for images in a bounding table cell at the head of a page.

Any thoughts? Regards to all, Armchair (talk) 16:27, 26 November 2010 (UTC)


 * I thought this use to be possible, but doesn't seem to work now. If you don't include the image size, I think the image's actual size will be used unless the image is bigger than the maximum size set by a user in their preferences. --dark lama  19:35, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

PD-Translations on Wikibooks?
Hi, there is a discussion (see s:Wikisource:Scriptorium), whether Wikisource-based translations (such as s:Category:Wikisource translations) do belong to Wikisource, or maybe to Wikibooks, or somewhere else. What do you think? --D.H (talk) 11:17, 28 November 2010 (UTC)


 * I think Wikisource is the place when the translation intends to preserve the original meaning with no other changes. If the intentions is to also provide an updated work of educational value, I think the answer depends on what form the work is intended to take. If the work is intended to take on an encyclopedia quality it should be forked to Wikipedia after translation. If the work is intended to take on a form that is within Wikibooks' scope than it should be forked to Wikibooks after translation. If the work is intended to be some other kind of learning material it should be forked to Wikiversity after translation.


 * Different language editions of Wikisource may have different inclusion requirements about translations too. Whether translations intended to preserve the original meaning belong at the target language Wikisource project or should be moved there after completion is best left up to Wikisource. --dark  lama  12:41, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Bottom border of tables missing in Internet Explorer 8
Hi,

I note that whereas Opera and Firefox depict the bottom borders of tables correctly, IE8 does not.

For examples see Tables Ready to Use

Any ideas, folks?

Regards to all, Armchair (talk) 22:27, 24 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Is this a problem you've noticed in the last day or two, or is this been around awhile? I've been told of similar problems with the borders for the tabs in the vector skin. Do you know if this problem is unique to Wikibooks or have you noticed this problem at other wikimedia projects as well? The problems I've heard were only noticed at Wikibooks. --dark lama  23:10, 24 November 2010 (UTC)


 * While I notice the tab border problem, I'm looking at the above-linked page and I don't see a difference for me between Firefox and IE8 with regards to the tables. – Adrignola talk 01:07, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

Given this new information. What operating system and operating system number are you both using with IE8? --dark lama  11:29, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

I have been off the net for a while so I do not know whether or not it is recent. I use a new computer with Windows 7, fully updated. Oops!; it seems to be working today on all three browsers. Armchair (talk) 12:57, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

...Tell a lie... it still seems to be a problem; it is intermittent! Armchair (talk) 17:09, 27 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Well the problem I was told about appears to be fixed now. Maybe the problem is similar. Check for any unclosed tags. --dark lama  20:25, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Translation to other languages
I could not find any help on how to make translation in other languages. For instance, I would like to translate wikibook on Python in Serbian. How can I start the translation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Milanpopovic (talk • contribs) 15:19, 14 November 2010 (UTC)
 * click here to start translating. Kayau 13:11, 15 November 2010 (UTC)