Talk:576
I would suggest to move the detailed specification tables to a separate page and only present a compact specification here that is more in line with other pages on Tekwiki. The article otherwise seems overloaded with data. Gregor (talk) 20:17, 27 February 2021 (MST)
I agree. The detailed specification tables are great, but they make the page too long when they're inline. A couple of possible ideas:
- Move the detailed specs to a different page, as you suggested.
- Possible refinement: Create a new subpage, like the "Repairs" page, for "Specs".
I suspect that a lot of Tekwiki viewers aren't even aware of the subpages so, if we chose to go that route, we might need link from the instrument page to the Specs subpage to ensure the relevance of the Specs subpage. There are some clumsy/confusing aspects of the subpages, though, or at least how we are currently using them. Lots of pages have a "Repairs" subpage where it doesn't make sense, e.g., "Howard Vollum/Repairs". I'm sure we could employ/invent some sort of multiple inheritance class/templating scheme for the pages, but one of the goals is to keep the wiki editable by people who aren't Mediawiki experts. The similarity in look and the applicability of documentation from Wikipedia to Tekwiki is an asset. I'm in favor of having a Specs subpage and I'm not going to lose sleep over the fact that Howard Vollum will get a Specs page, as well. (But if we could fix that without burdening the casual user with extra complexity, it would be nice.) Kurt (talk) 05:35, 28 February 2021 (PST)
Kurt, I am not opposed to the extra Specs subpage at all, I just wonder if its really necessary. To me the beauty of Tekwiki is the overview, comparison, and context that is added to the information available in Tektronix manuals. Replicating pages of information 1:1 from the manual to me personally does not provide extra benefit. What would be beneficial would be standardized specs for categories (e.g. each scope should have a bandwidth spec and it should be the nth line of the Spec table) but I see that this is probably hard to do consistently for all categories, and there will be many exceptions. As a side note and compliment, I really enjoy the freedom here compared to other collector portals (e.g. Radiomuseum.org) wich are very restrictive, so maybe my idea wouldn't be that smart even from this perspective. Gregor (talk) 18:17, 28 February 2021 (MST)
- I'm not happy with a separate specs page either. The idea (mine anyway) was to have some key specs at a glance high up in the article – after the short description but before any lengthy waffling. Now admittedly on certain models the space table has suffered from overload of less relevant facts, a discussion I had elsewhere (originally shipped accessories may be of interest to some but don't deserve the limelight spot).
I would propose to rename the section "Key Specifications" (can be done centrally in the template) and move excess content down on the page (or into a separate subpage if you really feel like that – most would remain pretty empty for some time to come, though).
BTW, the longer-term intent of the "Spec" template was to allow generating tables across devices automatically, at least for consistently named parameters like Bandwidth. Semantic MediaWiki can do that with a little work in the template, but I have found it a bit of a pain to maintain over releases, it's a bit of a heavyweight "plugin". Haven't researched simpler alternatives yet, however. (Oh and AFAIK there are no anal-retentive old Swiss guys here, so no danger of TW becoming RM II. Otherwise you would have seen mandatory sections like "case style" and "sound reproduction" already :-) --Peter (talk) 00:49, 1 March 2021 (PST) (PS. Howard Vollum has no Repairs sub-page – the link is red. I'll add one when I find out how to repair him, he's been sorely missed.)- Ok, let's not make separate Specs pages for all the instruments. And I agree with pointing to info in manuals rather than replicating it, except for a brief specs table in the page. In the specific case of this 576 page, let's move the big specs tables to a separate page and link to it from the 576 page. Kurt (talk) 10:33, 1 March 2021 (PST)