From: "Don Sheldon" <don.sheldon@xxxxxxxxx>
> Hmmm, I seem to have generated a more vocal response than I suggested,
> my appologies. My original questions were, perhaps, not well worded.
> I will be more careful in my second attempt.
I am sorry that I came off testy--again, I did not mean to seem so; I
was just finding it a bit... bothersome... that a process about 3 months
down a SLOW road of discussion and preparation was suddenly being
stopped and rewound (or so I thought). Further, you caught the brunt of
that peevishness because you happened to be the last to post--not fair
of me at all.
> this list) that a latter change would have to be manually propagated.
The process as I understand it is (was?) something like this:
1) A base template is made, with placeholder text to change per-con
(-warren/-game; I will just say "con" for all, henceforth).
2) For each con, that base template is copied to a new template page and
the placeholder text is modified to be con-specific.
3) An icon is made at the size that it will be used, and it is called
for by the con-specific template by modifying the placeholder text for
the image file name.
4) Anyone who wants to use the con-specific template just calls it
directly, with no "passed variables" to the template. Ex: {Origins} or
{Zendo}, not {badge:name=Origins;image=OriginsLogo.jpg}, which is a lot
to get right for many casual users of them (or so I imagined).
Now, if it's possible to "nest templates" so that the con-specific
template instantiates the base template on-the-fly and populates the
placeholder text (and table cell colors and anything else we'd tweak on
a per-badge basis) each time the con-specific template is called, then
that would certainly be more structured and easier to modify later
(well, except for the specifically-sized icons). One need only change,
say, the dimensions of the base template and all specific templates
which call it would automatically also change, because they always
"re-generate" themselves by looking first at that base code. (Right?)
If you know how to do that, Don, then please get on-board with the base
template design. That would, in fact, make it a LOT easier for
individual Rabbits to make their own badges for the cons (or warrens)
that they coordinate, because they wouldn't have to wade through all of
the base template code to find and modify placeholder text (without
accidentally breaking the code). Rather, they could just "compile" a
specific template with a string of variable definitions (similar to the
Bio box or the InfoBox on the Icehouse wiki).
> Of course, I may be really misunderstanding the current state of
> things and the "suggestion" that I'm making has already been discussed
> or even implemented. If that's the case, I'm very sorry.
No need to be sorry; your idea has not been present before, and if you
(or Mark) can pull it off then it's superior. Of course... it's neither
here nor there WRT what that base template will start out as, size-wise
(even if it's easy to change, it has to BE something first, to be
changed, ya?). So the Poll rolls on, even as we are discovering smarter
ways to implement the final decisions from that Poll.
> seem to know what you're doing, I'm sure you can handle it, and if
When it was the method that I enumerated above, sure: I can copy, paste,
and code hack with the best of them.
If we want to nest the specific templates as instantiations of the base
template using passed variables, then I can't handle it at all--I
wouldn't know where to begin, to make such a structure.
In closing, I really, really didn't mean to seem to "land on you with
both feet," Don. Your suggestion was good, but I misperceived it a bit
and thought we'd be going back to Square One or we'd be taking something
simple and making it very hard for group maintenance. If that turns out
not to be the case, then I very much want us to make such changes now,
rather than head off in an inferior direction.
Sincerely;
David