Editing Module talk:Hatnote (section)

== Inline hatnotes ==

[[User:SMcCandlish|SMcCandlish]] pointed out at [[Wikipedia talk:Hatnote#Discussion (Standardizing for-see lists)]] that there exists [[Module:Hatnote inline]] and {{tl|hatnote inline}}, which largely duplicate the functionality of this module and {{tl|hatnote}}. I've therefore [[Special:Diff/719915352/726349474|prototyped a simple enhancement]] to this module that adds support for inline hatnotes, with a simple <code>inline</code> parameter or argument that causes the module to emit a <code>&lt;span&gt;</code> element rather than a <code>&lt;div&gt;</code>. This would naturally deprecate the inline-specific module and template, which probably shouldn't be duplicating the functionality of this module anyway. Any comments, ideas, or objections? <span style="white-space:nowrap;">{&#123;[[User:Nihiltres|<span style="color:#233D7A;">Nihiltres</span>]]&#8202;&#124;[[User talk:Nihiltres|talk]]&#8202;&#124;[[Special:Contributions/Nihiltres|edits]]}&#125;</span> 20:26, 21 June 2016 (UTC)
:An "inline hatnote" sounds like a contradiction in terms to me. The "hat" in "hatnote" means that it goes ''above'' the content, doesn't it? It can't be inline at the same time. [[Module:Hatnote inline]] looks like a fork that SMcCandlish created because he couldn't find a consensus at the discussion section you linked, and should probably be sent to [[WP:MFD|MFD]]. And if we do decide to use something like this, we should at least change the name. — '''''[[User:Mr. Stradivarius|<span style="color: #194D00; font-family: Palatino, Times, serif">Mr.&nbsp;Stradivarius</span>]]''''' <sup>[[User talk:Mr. Stradivarius|♪&nbsp;talk&nbsp;♪]]</sup> 23:02, 21 June 2016 (UTC)
:::Except that they often do not. Various ones, like {{tlx|further information}} and {{tlx|detail}} are often used below content, and we have probably over a million cases of people manually inserting inline cross-references in prose in their own wording (often poor, e.g. "Please note that this is covered at more detail at ..."), the maintenance of which can be greatly improved with further templating. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''' ☺]] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] ≽<sup>ʌ</sup>ⱷ҅<sub>ᴥ</sub>ⱷ<sup>ʌ</sup>≼ </span> 04:19, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
::I'm neutral on the issue besides wanting to simplify the hatnote system in general. [[Module:Hatnote inline]] should be deprecated/merged/deleted either way, and I'm willing to get rid of "inline hatnotes" entirely, but we'll have to deal with its uses, which include {{tl|crossreference}}, {{tl|see above}}, and {{tl|see below}}. There's a mess of both Lua and wikitext supporting those, but only 300ish transclusions overall. Actually, now that I look closer, {{tl|see above}} and {{tl|see below}} are … frightening monsters of needless customizability. <span style="white-space:nowrap;">{&#123;[[User:Nihiltres|<span style="color:#233D7A;">Nihiltres</span>]]&#8202;&#124;[[User talk:Nihiltres|talk]]&#8202;&#124;[[Special:Contributions/Nihiltres|edits]]}&#125;</span> 23:51, 21 June 2016 (UTC)
:::I was going to scrap {{tlx|see above}} and {{tlx|see below}}, and replace them with something simpler anyway.  As for [[Module:Hatnote inline]], most of the Lua is just redundant code from [[Module:Hatnote]]; as noted earlier, the only real difference is {{tag|div}} vs. {{tag|span}}. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''' ☺]] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] ≽<sup>ʌ</sup>ⱷ҅<sub>ᴥ</sub>ⱷ<sup>ʌ</sup>≼ </span> 04:19, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

I originally posted this above, but will just move it here: 

What we get out of this is practical terms is at least all of the following:
* {{tag|span|o}}-based hatnotes (in the traditional "hat" position or otherwise) can be used in layout scenarios where insertion of a {{tag|div}} would be disruptive to document flow or even invalid markup.  See, e.g., {{tlx|ghat}}.
* Cross-references need not be done as distracting top-sitting hatnotes, but can be placed less obtrusively, inline, as needed. (We're already doing this in innumerable places, in probably hundreds of thousands of articles, just inconsistently with hand-added notes instead of consistent templated ones.)
* We can reduce template profusion by merging (and discouraging the re-forking) of templates and modules that differ only in whether they use inline or block CSS.
There are no costs associated with these benefits, beyond enabling support for a parameter in extant templates that should have them, to trigger use of {{tag|span|o}} instead of {{tag|div|o}}. (Not all existing hatnotes need this; those intended for disambiguation, for example, should always be page-top hatnotes, while contextual cross-references, like {{tlx|further information}} and {{tlx|details}}, should have the flexibility.) Whether we continue to call the underlying meta code by the name [[Template:Hatnote]] and [[Module:Hatnote]] is completely immaterial (see [[WP:COMMONSENSE]], [[WP:BUREAUCRACY]], and [[WP:IAR]], not that there is actually an "rule" about how the code that generates hatnotes may be repurposed). The fact that this "hat" bugbear is an imaginary pseudo-problem was pointed out over two years ago (see [[#Inline variant]]), during which time the forked inline hatnote code has been working without any problems. Just merge it and let's get back to something more productive than trying to prevent new functionality on the basis that it doesn't match the cute name someone came up with for the old functionality. I mean {{em|really}}. <span style="white-space:nowrap;font-family:'Trebuchet MS'"> — [[User:SMcCandlish|'''SMcCandlish''' ☺]] [[User talk:SMcCandlish|☏]] [[Special:Contributions/SMcCandlish|¢]] ≽<sup>ʌ</sup>ⱷ҅<sub>ᴥ</sub>ⱷ<sup>ʌ</sup>≼ </span> 04:19, 22 June 2016 (UTC)
: Some recent change, possibly to [[Module:Hatnote inline]], seems to have broken at least {{tl|Crossreference}}, which is now displaying as block content despite its explicit intention to create inline content. See [[Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources#Exceptions]] for some examples. [[User:Hairy Dude|Hairy Dude]] ([[User talk:Hairy Dude|talk]]) 14:47, 17 July 2016 (UTC)
::{{re|Hairy Dude}} Can't reproduce the issue here. I double-checked my rewrite of [[Module:Hatnote inline]] and it looks fine; the {{tl|crossreference}} instances at the example are appearing properly as (inline) span elements; and the CSS in [[MediaWiki:Common.css]] doesn't apply block-level styles to <code>.hatnote</code>, but only to <code>div.hatnote</code>. <span style="white-space:nowrap;">{&#123;[[User:Nihiltres|<span style="color:#233D7A;">Nihiltres</span>]]&#8202;&#124;[[User talk:Nihiltres|talk]]&#8202;&#124;[[Special:Contributions/Nihiltres|edits]]}&#125;</span> 16:40, 17 July 2016 (UTC)
:::{{re|Nihiltres}} I'm definitely seeing the block display at [[Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources#Exceptions]] (the "see <link>" bits). Inspecting the offending element shows that this rule from {{code|load.php}} applies: {{code|.hatnote { display: block !important {{)}}}}. [[User:Hairy Dude|Hairy Dude]] ([[User talk:Hairy Dude|talk]]) 19:21, 17 July 2016 (UTC)
::::{{re|Hairy Dude}} Tracked it down to [[User:Hairy Dude/common.css]]. <span style="white-space:nowrap;">{&#123;[[User:Nihiltres|<span style="color:#233D7A;">Nihiltres</span>]]&#8202;&#124;[[User talk:Nihiltres|talk]]&#8202;&#124;[[Special:Contributions/Nihiltres|edits]]}&#125;</span> 19:59, 17 July 2016 (UTC)
:::::{{re|Nihiltres}} I am an idiot. Thanks :) [[User:Hairy Dude|Hairy Dude]] ([[User talk:Hairy Dude|talk]]) 00:05, 18 July 2016 (UTC)