Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-09-04/Technology report

Technology report

Making Wikipedia more accessible

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VisualEditor enhancements

Copy-paste improvements continue: The VisualEditor team continued to make improvements to the tool's copy-paste functions, aiming to support copying of any richly-formatted text into VisualEditor, with appropriate markup being applied automatically. The team hopes to eventually allow direct copying from Wikipedia pages not currently open for editing.
Rapid typing bug fixed: A bug where very quick typing or input editor use could cause VisualEditor's text to become corrupted has been fixed.

Wikidata news

How do we measure the quality of Wikidata?: A blog post by Denny Vrandečić asks this question and proposes several possible metrics.
Using Wikidata to support Wiktionary: An analysis of how Wikidata might support the Wiktionary model has been presented. Since a dictionary is essentially a structured set of data about words, Wikidata could be an excellent fit; however, significant effort is still required to define a specific data structure to be used.
URL datatype: Wikidata defines numerous data types for the various kinds of data entered into it. For example, the page on Brassica oleracea includes categories of information such as "genus", which is of the type "item", meaning that the genus also has a Wikidata page; and "image", which is of the type "Commons data file", meaning that it links to a file on Wikimedia Commons. A new "url" data type is currently being tested; once complete, it will allow Wikidata to provide ready-made links to external reference materials.
VIAF: Gerard Meijssen has written a series of posts on VIAF, an inter-library system for matching different methods of organising library records on individual people, and how Wikidata uses it for information. Topics covered by the series include a general overview of VIAF and how the system deals with deletions from the database.

In brief

Wikipedia Signpost Android application: Yuvipanda has created an Android application to notify users of Signpost updates and allow reading of Signpost articles from mobile phones. The application is available through Google Play.
Wiki Loves Monuments Android app fixed: Yuvipanda has fixed the Wiki Loves Monuments mobile application for Android.
New HTML tag support: The <wbr> tag, which inserts an optional mid-word linebreak, is now supported.
Random page tool for categories: The new Special:RandomInCategory tool allows users to visit a random page in a category. The tool currently includes subcategories—but not their contents—as "pages in a category".

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In this issue

4 September 2013 (all comments)

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Accesibility

I've started a bot request discussion about the first two accessibility issues on my list. Graham87 05:07, 7 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Talking of visual accessibility, I'd like to talk with some editors who have different levels of vision impairment, to learn what system/browser settings they use, and what other software they frequently find helpful. Things like screen-magnification levels, specific fonts, copying text into alternate text-editors, custom style-sheets, and everything else. I've started a thread at WikiProject Accessibility#Visual impairment, listing what I can find, and would appreciate any comments, or assistance in finding the relevant editors (please nudge anyone you know of who might help). Thanks! –Quiddity (talk) 06:40, 7 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Please consider also using the resources on mw:Accessibility. Sumana Harihareswara, Wikimedia Foundation Engineering Community Manager (talk) 00:30, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Afaik we still have no guidelines on what needs to go into an alt caption. There was a big push to include them in all FAC candidates, and elsewhere, a few years back, which collapsed when it appeared we had no reliable guidance on what type of information was needed (does anybody have a link to those discussions; I remember several alternative texts for a photo of Kings College Cambridge for example). The question is not simple. Johnbod (talk) 13:50, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
- I'd presume they should provide a brief description of what the photo is. @Graham87: What do you think? Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 13:57, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  - Yes. The text at Wikipedia:Alternative text for images has been pretty stable for a few years now. Graham87 14:31, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Random page

Cool feature! I'd love to have an option to check for subcategories as well. By the way, you can make a direct link like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RandomInCategory&category=String_instruments. --NaBUru38 (talk) 06:15, 7 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A simpler way is [[Special:RandomInCategory/String instruments]]. Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 06:18, 7 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the tip! :) --NaBUru38 (talk) 15:30, 12 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Visual Editor

Copy and paste of richly formatted text has had a history of causing numerous problems for me. The people at the Computing Reference Desk have never been able to explain these problems. Same for people at email services who tried to help me.

If Visual Editor had become mandatory I would have either left Wikiepdia or been accused of frequent vandalism. Plain text is the only thing I can handle.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:18, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Still, for what VisualEditor is, copy-pasting of richly formated text is, if not a necessity, fairly near. As this is the technology report, we report on where major code updates are happening, which mainly means VisualEditor, not Wikitext. Adam Cuerden ^(talk) 22:13, 9 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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