Talk:GRAFs

Starting General Restructure for better maintenance/updating

OK guys, I have started to re-organise the structure of the GRAF wiki area. I am mainly after any critisisms, otherwise I will continue to convert all the remaining format pages over into the new structure. Here are the main changes...

1. The different formats used in a game will all have separate pages. This is partly due to point 2.
2. All games that use the same format will point to 1 instance of the page. A good example is that all games using ZIP archives point to a single ZipArchive page.
3. Because of points 1 and 2, the GRAF main page looks different, with each extension listed next to the game name. This makes it a little messier, but more functional.

If anyone has any complaints about this, feel free to lodge them here ASAP. I think its looking good so far, and will definately make things easier for both the updaters and the readers.

WATTO

Hmm... a temporary solution at best, IMHO. I'd volunteer to hack the source myself and see what could be done for personalizing the WIKI to our unique needs, but I know almost nothing of PHP programming (or any other, except some TI BASIC...) (which reminds me, I need to add the formats for the TI graphing series, they're like the pinnacle of do-it-yourself game programming =D ) Anyways, I think it works fine for now.

Dinoguy1000 15:33, 11 Dec 2005 (EST)

Yes I totally agree that a better solution could be achieved by hacking the code apart, but I think that in the short term this would be just as benificial. Certainly better than no change at all :) . Thanks for your comments.

WATTO

Initial restructure completed - just need to check all links inside each page, and remove all the newly-orphaned pages (mostly pages that were split up into multiple pages for each format). Hope you like it.

WATTO

Yep, I like it. ;)

Mr.Mouse

Me too. I think it will make it easier to find stuff, and would also work better with search engines, although we'll have to see if the unclickable game titles make them less favorable for search engines somehow. Good work altogether though.

Captain

OK, I think I am finished now. Thanks for your comments etc.

WATTO

Table vs. List

Would anyone object to switching to a layout using a table rather than a list? If not, this is how I see the table working:

Game	Platform	Demo	Formats	Toolset
Sample Game 1	PC		*.pak
Sample Game 1	PC	Demo	*.pak
Sample Game 1			*.pak	Toolset

...you get the idea. Any thoughts/suggestions? 「ディノ奴千？！」^{? · ☎ Dinoguy1000} 13:32, 3 August 2007 (CDT)

I like it. Some tests might be in order, however, to see how wide the "Formats" column becomes. --Deniz Oezmen 10:06, 13 August 2007 (CDT)

Hmm... Well, if column width becomes a real concern, we can just set fixed widths in Common.css. One thought that did occur to me, though, was that with everything separated out like that, we really don't need e.g. the brackets for toolsets, or the parenthesis for the demo tag. We do still need something to group and separate extensions by format, though, which the parenthesis do admirably. 「ディノ奴千？！」^{? · ☎ Dinoguy1000} 17:39, 16 August 2007 (CDT)

Yes, you're right, the parenthesis might still be in order in the formats column. (We could of course invent something new, using spaces, slashes, pipes and whatever. But we've got a working system there, so I'd tend to stick with it.) Well, I think this table style is a good idea. Anyone else? --Deniz Oezmen 19:05, 18 August 2007 (CDT)

One thought that does come to mind, it may not be a bad idea to create a tag for the PC (similar to e.g. {{DreamcastTag}}) and list it in the 'platforms' column. If you look at most other game format lists, they always explicitly state when a format is on the PC.

Aside from that, though, is how we could present the demo column better. An immediate thought would be to replace the {{DemoTag}} tag with a green checkmark, or to use a method similar to Wikipedia's {{no}} and {{yes}} templates.

...and on a related note would be any potential coloring schemes for the table as a whole. The wikitable class could do fine to start out with, but eventually we could come up with our own color scheme. 「ディノ奴千？！」^{? · ☎ Dinoguy1000} 08:06, 22 August 2007 (CDT)

I do like the Table approach, yes. I think it is a very good idea. We'd have to see how it looks in full effect, but the example is certainly promising and would give a nice layout with good overview!! --Mr.Mouse 03:11, 23 August 2007 (CDT)

Both the PC platform tag and the demo column sound sensible to me. Can't say anything regarding possible colour schemes, though. I'd wait for a complete table to see the colours in full effect. --Deniz Oezmen 10:21, 24 August 2007 (CDT)

Alright, I'll deploy it on one of the GRAF list pages, and we'll see how it looks from there. 「ディノ奴千？！」^{? · ☎ Dinoguy1000} 16:17, 27 August 2007 (CDT)

Damn, that took longer than I thought it would. Take a look at GRAFs/A for the table in use, using the wikitable class. You may also want to edit the page and see how the code works. 「ディノ奴千？！」^{? · ☎ Dinoguy1000} 18:27, 27 August 2007 (CDT)

Looking good! By the way: I know that there is no "official logo" for the PC platform. But how about something like this: ? [that unsigned comment was mine ... --Deniz Oezmen 16:41, 4 September 2007 (CDT)]

Well, in all truthfulness, we don't have "official logos" for any platforms yet. All the images being used are actually ones I stole from WATTO's website (this page, specifically). As such, the one you uploaded for the PC will do fine for now. ;) 「ディノ奴千？！」^{? · ☎ Dinoguy1000} 19:20, 3 September 2007 (CDT)

Ah, I see. ;-) --Deniz Oezmen 16:41, 4 September 2007 (CDT)