User:CoyneT/module convert show
Suggested change to module convert/show
I would like to suggest a change to module:convert/show: When producing the full units list (that is, with "heading") I would like it to add a link to a style guide below the heading. The wikitext might be similar to this (for Temperature):
See the [[Help:Conversion unit/temperature|unit guide]] for more information on converting this type of unit.
The genesis of this idea is that some people don't seem to grok the choice between scalar and difference temperature. I have seen this issue in two forms:
- A text that says something like, "The difference between the freezing and boiling points of water is 100 °C (212 °F) [sic]." (The difference is 180 °F, not 212.) This occurs when an author incorrectly uses the scale conversion "
{{convert|100|C|F}}" instead of the difference conversion "{{convert|100|C-change|F-change}}". - A text where the author seems to "avoid" the problem entirely by giving just one measurement. An example wikitext from the Climate of Antarctica article was "
For comparison, this is 11 °C colder than subliming dry ice." Note the lack of use ofconvert, which was used for other temperatures in that same paragraph, and therefore seems to have been deliberately avoided in this case; perhaps because it didn't seem to work right.
- A text that says something like, "The difference between the freezing and boiling points of water is 100 °C (212 °F) [sic]." (The difference is 180 °F, not 212.) This occurs when an author incorrectly uses the scale conversion "
So I conceived the idea of adding a "style guide" to the Temperature section of Help:Convert unit; but that is not straightforward because it is generated by the module. (Such a guide is needed most for Temperature, because of the distinction between scale and difference, which only affects that unit.) After reflection, it seemed to me that a style guide isn't just needed for Temperature, but should be useful for each of the individual units, so that recommendations could be made for preferred base unit and etc; and that it would be better handled as a link rather than building in a long text into the module for each section. So I'm suggesting a guidance link be given below the heading for each unit type.