Slashes (and other characters) in page names

Forum for all users to discuss the implementation and operation of the ChoralWiki at CPDL
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BarryJ
Posts: 187
Joined: 03 May 2014 03:33
Location: Gunnison, Colorado, USA

Slashes (and other characters) in page names

Post by BarryJ »

I have observed and corrected a number of page-name errors recently.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THE CHARACTERS SLASH (/) OR AMPERSAND (&) IN PAGE NAMES! – Because both are used in MediaWiki programming, these will cause errors that only become evident in lists (such as SortWorks on a composer page or MultiPubList on a publication page). In addition, please limit the number of commas (,) in page names to as few as possible.

Editors and other users should get into the habit of avoiding the use of the slash (/) in general. There are legitimate uses for it, such as inline fractions (e.g., 3/5) or text description of the division function. But this character is so greatly over-used that it has lost its meaning in many cases. When you add confusion about its meaning and use as a delimiter in programming, the value of the slash becomes negative in many cases. (The situation is similar to certain curse words, where overuse for violent motives and offense to some people have rendered them less than useless for those of us with ethical standards.)

Some special characters such as the asterisk (*) or brackets ([ ]) could be used in page names and text fields, but are not recommended. Curly-brackets ({ }) and pipe (|) are widely known to cause errors. I have found that once I get into the habit of using these in text, it will carry over to other places.

So I RECOMMEND that users develop a habit of using these characters ( | / \ < > * ^ $ @ & # ~ ¦ ) ONLY when doing programming, that is, coding in MediaWiki (or other computer programs), or tasks like modifying an URL. (Or while posting this page :D ) See this page for more details.
Barry Johnston
Gunnison, U. S. A.
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