Module talk:columns/old

@Erutuon Hi. Why does this exist? What problem is there in the current Module:columns that this forked version solves? Benwing2 (talk) 23:07, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

@Benwing2: I refreshed my memory by searching the module name. Apparently from this post, my initial reason for creating Module:columns/old (from a copy of the old version of Module:columns) was to fix a memory error in a page that used {{zh-der}}, reported here. For some reason Module:columns was more memory-hungry than Module:columns/old. Maybe that's still true. I also said at the time that other language-specific list templates could use the old format if the editors who worked on those languages preferred it, since the poll in Wiktionary:Beer parlour/2018/November#Titles of morphological relations templates was only about the general templates like {{der3}} and the participants weren't voting on a change in format for all list templates. I'd rather not enforce what wasn't clearly voted on, when some people strongly disagree.

{{th-syn}} specifically needed to use Module:columns/old at one point because it needed a header (as reported here) but since then Module:columns has been made able to output a header again, so the template could go to the new format if Thai editors are okay with it.

I also created Template:User:Donnanz/der3-u, which uses Module:columns/old, so that User:Donnanz's lists on his user page could be in the old style (diff). I see he used it in entries, which I understand to some degree since {{col3}} has its issues; for instance, I'm annoyed when a list is really long and I can't click at the top to collapse it when I'm scrolling down a page. But it's weird to have user sandbox templates in mainspace. I wish {{col3}} could be brought to a state where, at the very least, he wouldn't feel obliged to conscientiously object to using it. But unfortunately I'm not great at graphic design or whatever. — Eru·tuon 00:42, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments. Yeah, having Template:User:Donnanz/der3-u in 500 entries is a really bad idea. We could create collapsed versions of {{col3}} etc. or add a collapse=1 or similar param to {{col3}} etc (although I personally don't see why displaying the first few entries is such a bad idea; I don't know why User:Donnanz objects so much). As for memory usage issues, we should figure out and fix them in Module:columns rather than forking; in general, having forks of modules and templates is a bad idea that can lead to chaos if not controlled. Benwing2 (talk) 00:50, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

@Erutuon Benwing2 (talk) 00:51, 6 October 2019 (UTC)