This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Infobox computing device template. |
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|
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[1] this edit broke several entries in the template. See the diff, the ones that haven't had the label# data# parameters changed are in problem, for example, CPU field overrides the earlier Power field. Can anyone with edit privileges fix that? Thank you. 1exec1 ( talk) 11:43, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
Just my imagination or is the "GPU" field broken? I added the field in an article, but it resulted in nothing displayed. - Kai445 ( talk) 06:34, 28 July 2012 (UTC)
I think that it is a good idea to add both the SoC and Chipset fields. A System on Chip field is highly relevant as we move towards integrated devices that employ SoC's, as I don't feel that a Chipset field would do them justice (where you would more likely find a Northbridge/Southbridge or Unified chipset, not the SoC which has a CPU/GPU on it). Both would make for good additions. - Kai445 ( talk) 16:44, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
{{{soc|}}}
for now.
Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (
talk)
18:45, 13 August 2012 (UTC)This box is used for tablets (see Nexus 7). The needed information is about removable storage (aka memory_card in Template:Infobox mobile phone), so please add this. Thank you. -- Milan Kerslager ( talk) 19:47, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
![]() | This
edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Where it says connectivity under that I would like to add Bluetooth please Google9999 ( talk) 13:53, 8 November 2012 (UTC)
Please add discontinued please
The label (label 16) for SoC is " System-on-chip used" at the moment. Please remove "used" so that it is compliant with the other labels. It looks awkward. Kapitaenk ( talk) 17:27, 17 March 2013 (UTC)
Is the OS field intended to reflect the OS the computer was sold with, the one the vendor supports, or all OSes the box is capable of running? I ask because many (most?) computers are sold with MS Windows, the vendor only supports MS Windows, but they are capable of running linux, various flavors of bsd, etc. I would lean toward only listing the OS the vendor supplies, otherwise it's a lengthy list, but then what about computers that are sold with no OS? Kendall-K1 ( talk) 21:55, 31 March 2013 (UTC)
This template is used for a number of gaming consoles and other hand=held devices. These increasingly use one of a range of USB connector types for charging and perhaps syncing. Others are significant for not doing so. I've looked at a couple of our articles on Nintendo consoles, for example
Nintendo DSi, and we don't seem to say anything about the charging connectors, or the fact that some at least are apparently proprietary variants on standard USB types. Are {para|power}] or |connectivity=
meant for this purpose? If not, I suggest we add a parameter to this infobox, for such content.
Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing);
Talk to Andy;
Andy's edits
20:10, 17 August 2013 (UTC)
In cases like iPhone 4S, do we really need the title listed so many times in one-inch of screen? « Ryūkotsusei » 01:11, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
I just changed Surface 2 cpu field, that was only used, to include the Nvidia Tegra as ARM is just the core (or architecture). CPU could be used when it applies (and not the SoC). However I saw the SoC used for the Surface, should the CPU then also be used? And not mention manufacturer? Or should the fields be mutually exclusive? comp.arch ( talk) 14:50, 29 October 2013 (UTC)
![]() | This
edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Hi. This template is still using the esoteric |above=
hack and suffering its consequences.
| above = {{{logo|{{{Logo|}}} }}}
| image = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage|image={{{image|{{{Image|{{{photo|{{{Photo|}}} }}} }}} }}}|size={{{image_size|{{{ImageWidth|}}}}}}|sizedefault=frameless|alt={{{alt|}}}}}
| caption = {{{caption|{{{Caption|}}} }}}
By now, however, the underlying {{ infobox}} is supporting two image parameters. Here is the replacement code, which can be found in up-to-date infoboxes like {{ infobox software}} and {{ infobox OS}}.
| image = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage|image={{{logo|}}}|size={{{logo_size|}}}|sizedefault=250px|alt={{{logo_alt|}}}}}
| caption = {{{logo caption|}}}
| image2 = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage|image={{{image|{{{Image|{{{photo|{{{Photo|}}} }}} }}} }}}|size={{{image_size|{{{ImageWidth|}}}}}}|sizedefault=300px|alt={{{alt|}}}}}
| caption2 = {{{caption|}}}
Best regards,
Codename Lisa (
talk)
13:05, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
I was able to convert Xbox Live Vision to use this template, with the exception of two missing fields: (1) platform and (2) resolution. any objections to adding these? Frietjes ( talk) 00:52, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
|platform=
but as for resolution: We have |graphics=
, |display=
and |camera=
; a resolution parameter cannot co-exist we these. Either one should override resolution or else resolution should override one; e.g. it should either conditionally say "Camera" or "Resolution" not both. The question is: which?|camera=
is working nicely on these. I'd say we stick with that.![]() | This
edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Given that this template is used more on tablets in lieu of {{ Infobox mobile phone}} (which does contain it), I think we could use a memory_card field in there too. It's a simple change. ViperSnake151 Talk 00:20, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
|memory card=
. Best regards,
Codename Lisa (
talk)
00:49, 11 January 2014 (UTC)After looking at some articles, the power fields seems out of place to me. This is a request to move the "Power" field from its current location to below "Connectivity" field. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 04:47, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
"Generation" field should not link to History of video games article. It makes no sense in Nexus 7 (2012 version) article for example as this is not really a game console. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.193.200.21 ( talk) 18:30, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
![]() | This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest has now been answered. |
Different IP editor to above, but I came here to mention the exact issue! Could an admin consider un-linking "Generation"? There doesn't seem to be a suitable catch-all that would apply to all "information appliances", though perhaps Generation (disambiguation) might work? 80.189.57.106 ( talk) 16:43, 12 February 2016 (UTC)
![]() | This
edit request to
Template:Infobox information appliance has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Sorry, wrong template hopefully this is the right one! 80.189.57.106 ( talk) 13:33, 26 February 2016 (UTC)
The template doc appears to be partially out of date. If I've read it correctly, there is mention of a cpuSpeed field, but attempting to use it did not produce any visible text. I also found a usage at New Nintendo 3DS of the "gpu" field, but it did not display. I updated it to "graphics" instead, which fixed it, but the documentation suggests "gpu" should have worked. -- ferret ( talk) 18:55, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
Watchers may be interested in Talk:Xbox One#RfC about the inclusion of third party values in infobox, which is discussing the use of official sales figures versus third-party estimates. One suggestion has been to add an estimated sales field to this template. -- ferret ( talk) 17:43, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
Shouldn't the parameter |logo caption=
be titled |logo_caption=
for consistency? --
User-duck (
talk)
21:32, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
Right now, the "related" field, if populated, puts out "Related articles" in the infobox. But the instructions suggest this is for sibling consoles (eg Nintendo Switch Lite to the Nintendo Switch, or Xbox One X to the Xbox One). I don't know if "sibling" would be understood by masses, but given we have "predecessor" and "successor", I would suggest we use "concurrent" instead. We'd also need to stress this should be consoles from the same family. The Wii or Wii U are not concurrent with the Nintendo DS line, as they are completely different console families.
Also to that end, I would suggest possibly a "family" field. We know, for example, the Xbox Series X is part of the Xbox 4th gen series, and more consoles are to come. I don't know if reusing the "related" field works here for that, whereas a "family" field that spits out "Console family" in the infobox would be good. -- Masem ( t) 02:38, 24 December 2019 (UTC)
Some devices, such as the Toshiba AC100 have a codename. It would be a good idea to add that parameter. The infobox "mobile phone" already has it. PhotographyEdits ( talk) 12:56, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
The "display" parameter is usually used to specify the display's size. Nothing wrong with that; however, it's usually given as the screen diagonal, which is misleading due to different aspect ratios (not to mention that the area doesn't increase proportionally to the diagonal).
I would propose to extend the description of the display parameter accordingly, for example:
Specifications of included or supported display devices; e.g. screen area, or the resolutions that can be outputted.
This parameter is unclear in its instructions, and could be (and has been) read as implying a single number ("5 years") or a range ("1998–2004"). Can anyone explain why the phrasing Average expected lifespan
is used? Is there a type of product that this template has in mind? Because for something like an iPad or a Gameboy Color, it doesn't make sense to talk about the average expected lifespan.
Seperately, it seems like we should not use the lifespan parameter if both the release date and discontinued parameters are filled. I could amend the TemplateData to instruct that, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything first. — HTGS ( talk) 10:01, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
One of the reasons we use templates is to give semantic content to the article that is easily read and processed. If you add infobox video game to an article, you can be pretty sure it's about a video game. To make this work, the boxes should be relatively specific to the topic, you wouldn't use, say, infobox game, or infobox recreation.
Yet this template seems to be the only one for computers, that is, the machine as a whole. There's CPU and other hardware templates, but lumping the PDP-11 in the same semantic group as a Java smart terminal loses precisely the distinction we hope to add.
I would suggest several sub-templates; off the top of my head, mainframe computer, minicomputer, microcomputer seem obvious. Older categories like process control/realtime might also be worthwhile.
Maury Markowitz ( talk) 22:42, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
OK, so there seems to be some agreement here, and it also appears the original merge may have been hasty and in the wrong direction! So, having rarely been involved in this sort of thing before, what's the process now? I have admin, so I could un-delete the infobox computer to get things rolling, but I suspect some more discussion on what it might contain would be useful? For instance:
Maury Markowitz ( talk) 15:43, 27 September 2021 (UTC)
Ok, so now we seem to have some ideals gelling. What is the next step? Do I simply make the new template pages and start using them? Maury Markowitz ( talk) 11:45, 28 September 2021 (UTC)
This is really just an uglier duplicate of {{ infobox computer}}, so I'm going to work on merging them.
Do what I did for the now extinct Template:Infobox PMP: switch all Infobox computer articles to Information appliance/Infobox IA, then delete Infobox Computer. The monopoly is growing...
"information appliance" is a horrible, contrived term and the other infobox is much more widely used. ... Merging the other way makes more sense.
I'm going to assume that request to justify a decision I made thirteen years ago is a joke, but given a second to think about it "information appliance", though it is clunky and invented, at least covers everything that this template does, whereas people would definitely find a way to argue that "computer" didn't even though everything here has a computer in its brain.
I'm not seeing the actual concrete rationale for a split. "These things should not all be lumped together" is not an argument unless it explains what problems that causes. The attributes shared by a PDP-11 and a Java smart terminal (and a ZX Spectrum, and an Xbox 360) are far more numerous than those in which they substantially diverge. In general I'm also reflexively opposed to the "video games are different" argument because it's just another way for WP:VG to silo off from the rest of the encyclopedia (something which has been troublesome for coming up on two decades).
If there is a need for sub-templates for specific areas, then {{
infobox}} has supported this through child=yes
for years (
see documentation). That's the only approach to template divergence that is remotely desirable here.
Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) ( talk) 21:05, 28 September 2021 (UTC)
@ Thumperward: The article on information appliance is quite specific about the type of machines it encompasses, yet this tag is being used on a much wider group of articles than anything remotely covered by the term. An IBM 360/65 is not an "information appliance", nor is a Mac SE, yet both of these use that infobox.
But a much more important point is that the infoboxes are used to provide semantic information to parsers. A page with a radar infobox is probably about radar, and a page with a video game infobox is likely about a video game. But "information appliance" could be practically anything.
I guess one could argue that using a single tag is fine as many of the fields are similar, so we might have a "type" field in infobox for "mainframe" or "laptop". But at that point one could reduce that to say we should have only one sort of infobox for all articles and use the same field to define "radar" vs. "laptop". I don't think anyone would argue that is the rightly level of detail, yet that is what is happening here with the too-broad use of this one tag.
As to the forking... can you tell us why? The wording of your post suggests that it has something to do with the process itself, but I'm not clear if that is what you're trying to say. Maury Markowitz ( talk) 19:45, 30 September 2021 (UTC)
Ok, having read many materials on infoboxes and trying my hand at some edits, I propose:
Slings and arrows please! Maury Markowitz ( talk) 13:39, 1 October 2021 (UTC)
I'm sorry Chris, but I am having difficultly understanding what you propose I fix on the documentation page. I'm also not clear how changing the documentation page will aid automated software incorrectly categorizing the varied systems that the template finds itself on. As you imply this is something simple, perhaps you could describe, no matter how briefly, what types of changes you are suggesting? Maury Markowitz ( talk) 22:14, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
Renaming everyone? Maury Markowitz ( talk) 15:24, 5 October 2021 (UTC)
So we can either just do it, or we could put something on Wikipedia:Requested moves and see what people say. Guy Harris ( talk) 22:50, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
Done,
Category:Pages using Infobox information appliance with unknown parameters awaiting a speedy rename.
Janhrach (
talk)
18:36, 25 February 2023 (UTC)
Done
Janhrach (
talk)
19:56, 27 February 2023 (UTC)
Currently this infobox has an entry called 'developer'. Is this supposed to be a company name or a person? That is not documented. I would also like to have a 'designer' field, which might be made by renaming this, because I think there is considerable overlap between a 'developer' and a 'manufacturer'. I think that the person who made a design style for a computer is not really a 'developer'. PhotographyEdits ( talk) 10:40, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
is the parameter marketing target valid or not? — GhostInTheMachine talk to me 18:50, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
{{{marketing_target}}}
, fixed —
GhostInTheMachine
talk to me
11:53, 21 December 2023 (UTC)Quantum Processing Unit? AggressiveC ( talk) 19:31, 23 December 2023 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Infobox computing device template. |
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![]() | This template does not require a rating on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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[1] this edit broke several entries in the template. See the diff, the ones that haven't had the label# data# parameters changed are in problem, for example, CPU field overrides the earlier Power field. Can anyone with edit privileges fix that? Thank you. 1exec1 ( talk) 11:43, 12 January 2012 (UTC)
Just my imagination or is the "GPU" field broken? I added the field in an article, but it resulted in nothing displayed. - Kai445 ( talk) 06:34, 28 July 2012 (UTC)
I think that it is a good idea to add both the SoC and Chipset fields. A System on Chip field is highly relevant as we move towards integrated devices that employ SoC's, as I don't feel that a Chipset field would do them justice (where you would more likely find a Northbridge/Southbridge or Unified chipset, not the SoC which has a CPU/GPU on it). Both would make for good additions. - Kai445 ( talk) 16:44, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
{{{soc|}}}
for now.
Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) (
talk)
18:45, 13 August 2012 (UTC)This box is used for tablets (see Nexus 7). The needed information is about removable storage (aka memory_card in Template:Infobox mobile phone), so please add this. Thank you. -- Milan Kerslager ( talk) 19:47, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
![]() | This
edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Where it says connectivity under that I would like to add Bluetooth please Google9999 ( talk) 13:53, 8 November 2012 (UTC)
Please add discontinued please
The label (label 16) for SoC is " System-on-chip used" at the moment. Please remove "used" so that it is compliant with the other labels. It looks awkward. Kapitaenk ( talk) 17:27, 17 March 2013 (UTC)
Is the OS field intended to reflect the OS the computer was sold with, the one the vendor supports, or all OSes the box is capable of running? I ask because many (most?) computers are sold with MS Windows, the vendor only supports MS Windows, but they are capable of running linux, various flavors of bsd, etc. I would lean toward only listing the OS the vendor supplies, otherwise it's a lengthy list, but then what about computers that are sold with no OS? Kendall-K1 ( talk) 21:55, 31 March 2013 (UTC)
This template is used for a number of gaming consoles and other hand=held devices. These increasingly use one of a range of USB connector types for charging and perhaps syncing. Others are significant for not doing so. I've looked at a couple of our articles on Nintendo consoles, for example
Nintendo DSi, and we don't seem to say anything about the charging connectors, or the fact that some at least are apparently proprietary variants on standard USB types. Are {para|power}] or |connectivity=
meant for this purpose? If not, I suggest we add a parameter to this infobox, for such content.
Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing);
Talk to Andy;
Andy's edits
20:10, 17 August 2013 (UTC)
In cases like iPhone 4S, do we really need the title listed so many times in one-inch of screen? « Ryūkotsusei » 01:11, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
I just changed Surface 2 cpu field, that was only used, to include the Nvidia Tegra as ARM is just the core (or architecture). CPU could be used when it applies (and not the SoC). However I saw the SoC used for the Surface, should the CPU then also be used? And not mention manufacturer? Or should the fields be mutually exclusive? comp.arch ( talk) 14:50, 29 October 2013 (UTC)
![]() | This
edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Hi. This template is still using the esoteric |above=
hack and suffering its consequences.
| above = {{{logo|{{{Logo|}}} }}}
| image = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage|image={{{image|{{{Image|{{{photo|{{{Photo|}}} }}} }}} }}}|size={{{image_size|{{{ImageWidth|}}}}}}|sizedefault=frameless|alt={{{alt|}}}}}
| caption = {{{caption|{{{Caption|}}} }}}
By now, however, the underlying {{ infobox}} is supporting two image parameters. Here is the replacement code, which can be found in up-to-date infoboxes like {{ infobox software}} and {{ infobox OS}}.
| image = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage|image={{{logo|}}}|size={{{logo_size|}}}|sizedefault=250px|alt={{{logo_alt|}}}}}
| caption = {{{logo caption|}}}
| image2 = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage|image={{{image|{{{Image|{{{photo|{{{Photo|}}} }}} }}} }}}|size={{{image_size|{{{ImageWidth|}}}}}}|sizedefault=300px|alt={{{alt|}}}}}
| caption2 = {{{caption|}}}
Best regards,
Codename Lisa (
talk)
13:05, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
I was able to convert Xbox Live Vision to use this template, with the exception of two missing fields: (1) platform and (2) resolution. any objections to adding these? Frietjes ( talk) 00:52, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
|platform=
but as for resolution: We have |graphics=
, |display=
and |camera=
; a resolution parameter cannot co-exist we these. Either one should override resolution or else resolution should override one; e.g. it should either conditionally say "Camera" or "Resolution" not both. The question is: which?|camera=
is working nicely on these. I'd say we stick with that.![]() | This
edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Given that this template is used more on tablets in lieu of {{ Infobox mobile phone}} (which does contain it), I think we could use a memory_card field in there too. It's a simple change. ViperSnake151 Talk 00:20, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
|memory card=
. Best regards,
Codename Lisa (
talk)
00:49, 11 January 2014 (UTC)After looking at some articles, the power fields seems out of place to me. This is a request to move the "Power" field from its current location to below "Connectivity" field. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 04:47, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
"Generation" field should not link to History of video games article. It makes no sense in Nexus 7 (2012 version) article for example as this is not really a game console. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.193.200.21 ( talk) 18:30, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
![]() | This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest has now been answered. |
Different IP editor to above, but I came here to mention the exact issue! Could an admin consider un-linking "Generation"? There doesn't seem to be a suitable catch-all that would apply to all "information appliances", though perhaps Generation (disambiguation) might work? 80.189.57.106 ( talk) 16:43, 12 February 2016 (UTC)
![]() | This
edit request to
Template:Infobox information appliance has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Sorry, wrong template hopefully this is the right one! 80.189.57.106 ( talk) 13:33, 26 February 2016 (UTC)
The template doc appears to be partially out of date. If I've read it correctly, there is mention of a cpuSpeed field, but attempting to use it did not produce any visible text. I also found a usage at New Nintendo 3DS of the "gpu" field, but it did not display. I updated it to "graphics" instead, which fixed it, but the documentation suggests "gpu" should have worked. -- ferret ( talk) 18:55, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
Watchers may be interested in Talk:Xbox One#RfC about the inclusion of third party values in infobox, which is discussing the use of official sales figures versus third-party estimates. One suggestion has been to add an estimated sales field to this template. -- ferret ( talk) 17:43, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
Shouldn't the parameter |logo caption=
be titled |logo_caption=
for consistency? --
User-duck (
talk)
21:32, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
Right now, the "related" field, if populated, puts out "Related articles" in the infobox. But the instructions suggest this is for sibling consoles (eg Nintendo Switch Lite to the Nintendo Switch, or Xbox One X to the Xbox One). I don't know if "sibling" would be understood by masses, but given we have "predecessor" and "successor", I would suggest we use "concurrent" instead. We'd also need to stress this should be consoles from the same family. The Wii or Wii U are not concurrent with the Nintendo DS line, as they are completely different console families.
Also to that end, I would suggest possibly a "family" field. We know, for example, the Xbox Series X is part of the Xbox 4th gen series, and more consoles are to come. I don't know if reusing the "related" field works here for that, whereas a "family" field that spits out "Console family" in the infobox would be good. -- Masem ( t) 02:38, 24 December 2019 (UTC)
Some devices, such as the Toshiba AC100 have a codename. It would be a good idea to add that parameter. The infobox "mobile phone" already has it. PhotographyEdits ( talk) 12:56, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
The "display" parameter is usually used to specify the display's size. Nothing wrong with that; however, it's usually given as the screen diagonal, which is misleading due to different aspect ratios (not to mention that the area doesn't increase proportionally to the diagonal).
I would propose to extend the description of the display parameter accordingly, for example:
Specifications of included or supported display devices; e.g. screen area, or the resolutions that can be outputted.
This parameter is unclear in its instructions, and could be (and has been) read as implying a single number ("5 years") or a range ("1998–2004"). Can anyone explain why the phrasing Average expected lifespan
is used? Is there a type of product that this template has in mind? Because for something like an iPad or a Gameboy Color, it doesn't make sense to talk about the average expected lifespan.
Seperately, it seems like we should not use the lifespan parameter if both the release date and discontinued parameters are filled. I could amend the TemplateData to instruct that, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything first. — HTGS ( talk) 10:01, 11 July 2021 (UTC)
One of the reasons we use templates is to give semantic content to the article that is easily read and processed. If you add infobox video game to an article, you can be pretty sure it's about a video game. To make this work, the boxes should be relatively specific to the topic, you wouldn't use, say, infobox game, or infobox recreation.
Yet this template seems to be the only one for computers, that is, the machine as a whole. There's CPU and other hardware templates, but lumping the PDP-11 in the same semantic group as a Java smart terminal loses precisely the distinction we hope to add.
I would suggest several sub-templates; off the top of my head, mainframe computer, minicomputer, microcomputer seem obvious. Older categories like process control/realtime might also be worthwhile.
Maury Markowitz ( talk) 22:42, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
OK, so there seems to be some agreement here, and it also appears the original merge may have been hasty and in the wrong direction! So, having rarely been involved in this sort of thing before, what's the process now? I have admin, so I could un-delete the infobox computer to get things rolling, but I suspect some more discussion on what it might contain would be useful? For instance:
Maury Markowitz ( talk) 15:43, 27 September 2021 (UTC)
Ok, so now we seem to have some ideals gelling. What is the next step? Do I simply make the new template pages and start using them? Maury Markowitz ( talk) 11:45, 28 September 2021 (UTC)
This is really just an uglier duplicate of {{ infobox computer}}, so I'm going to work on merging them.
Do what I did for the now extinct Template:Infobox PMP: switch all Infobox computer articles to Information appliance/Infobox IA, then delete Infobox Computer. The monopoly is growing...
"information appliance" is a horrible, contrived term and the other infobox is much more widely used. ... Merging the other way makes more sense.
I'm going to assume that request to justify a decision I made thirteen years ago is a joke, but given a second to think about it "information appliance", though it is clunky and invented, at least covers everything that this template does, whereas people would definitely find a way to argue that "computer" didn't even though everything here has a computer in its brain.
I'm not seeing the actual concrete rationale for a split. "These things should not all be lumped together" is not an argument unless it explains what problems that causes. The attributes shared by a PDP-11 and a Java smart terminal (and a ZX Spectrum, and an Xbox 360) are far more numerous than those in which they substantially diverge. In general I'm also reflexively opposed to the "video games are different" argument because it's just another way for WP:VG to silo off from the rest of the encyclopedia (something which has been troublesome for coming up on two decades).
If there is a need for sub-templates for specific areas, then {{
infobox}} has supported this through child=yes
for years (
see documentation). That's the only approach to template divergence that is remotely desirable here.
Chris Cunningham (user:thumperward) ( talk) 21:05, 28 September 2021 (UTC)
@ Thumperward: The article on information appliance is quite specific about the type of machines it encompasses, yet this tag is being used on a much wider group of articles than anything remotely covered by the term. An IBM 360/65 is not an "information appliance", nor is a Mac SE, yet both of these use that infobox.
But a much more important point is that the infoboxes are used to provide semantic information to parsers. A page with a radar infobox is probably about radar, and a page with a video game infobox is likely about a video game. But "information appliance" could be practically anything.
I guess one could argue that using a single tag is fine as many of the fields are similar, so we might have a "type" field in infobox for "mainframe" or "laptop". But at that point one could reduce that to say we should have only one sort of infobox for all articles and use the same field to define "radar" vs. "laptop". I don't think anyone would argue that is the rightly level of detail, yet that is what is happening here with the too-broad use of this one tag.
As to the forking... can you tell us why? The wording of your post suggests that it has something to do with the process itself, but I'm not clear if that is what you're trying to say. Maury Markowitz ( talk) 19:45, 30 September 2021 (UTC)
Ok, having read many materials on infoboxes and trying my hand at some edits, I propose:
Slings and arrows please! Maury Markowitz ( talk) 13:39, 1 October 2021 (UTC)
I'm sorry Chris, but I am having difficultly understanding what you propose I fix on the documentation page. I'm also not clear how changing the documentation page will aid automated software incorrectly categorizing the varied systems that the template finds itself on. As you imply this is something simple, perhaps you could describe, no matter how briefly, what types of changes you are suggesting? Maury Markowitz ( talk) 22:14, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
Renaming everyone? Maury Markowitz ( talk) 15:24, 5 October 2021 (UTC)
So we can either just do it, or we could put something on Wikipedia:Requested moves and see what people say. Guy Harris ( talk) 22:50, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
Done,
Category:Pages using Infobox information appliance with unknown parameters awaiting a speedy rename.
Janhrach (
talk)
18:36, 25 February 2023 (UTC)
Done
Janhrach (
talk)
19:56, 27 February 2023 (UTC)
Currently this infobox has an entry called 'developer'. Is this supposed to be a company name or a person? That is not documented. I would also like to have a 'designer' field, which might be made by renaming this, because I think there is considerable overlap between a 'developer' and a 'manufacturer'. I think that the person who made a design style for a computer is not really a 'developer'. PhotographyEdits ( talk) 10:40, 9 May 2023 (UTC)
is the parameter marketing target valid or not? — GhostInTheMachine talk to me 18:50, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
{{{marketing_target}}}
, fixed —
GhostInTheMachine
talk to me
11:53, 21 December 2023 (UTC)Quantum Processing Unit? AggressiveC ( talk) 19:31, 23 December 2023 (UTC)