Suggested change to module convert/show
I would like to suggest a change to module:convert/show: When producing the full units list (that is, with "heading") I would like it to add a link to a style guide below the heading. The wikitext might be similar to this (for Temperature):
See the [[Help:Conversion unit/temperature|unit guide]] for more information on converting this type of unit.
The genesis of this idea is that some people don't seem to grok the choice between scalar and difference temperature. I have seen this issue in two forms:
- A text that says something like, "The difference between the freezing and boiling points of water is 100 °C (212 °F) [sic]." (The difference is 180 °F, not 212.) This occurs when an author incorrectly uses the scale conversion "
{{convert|100|C|F}}
" instead of the difference conversion "{{convert|100|C-change|F-change}}
". - A text where the author seems to "avoid" the problem entirely by giving just one measurement. An example wikitext from the Climate of Antarctica article was "
For comparison, this is 11 °C colder than subliming dry ice.
" Note the lack of use ofconvert
, which was used for other temperatures in that same paragraph, and therefore seems to have been deliberately avoided in this case; perhaps because it didn't seem to work right.
- A text that says something like, "The difference between the freezing and boiling points of water is 100 °C (212 °F) [sic]." (The difference is 180 °F, not 212.) This occurs when an author incorrectly uses the scale conversion "
So I conceived the idea of adding a "style guide" to the Temperature section of Help:Convert unit; but that is not straightforward because it is generated by the module. (Such a guide is needed most for Temperature, because of the distinction between scale and difference, which only affects that unit.) After reflection, it seemed to me that a style guide isn't just needed for Temperature, but should be useful for each of the individual units, so that recommendations could be made for preferred base unit and etc; and that it would be better handled as a link rather than building in a long text into the module for each section. So I'm suggesting a guidance link be given below the heading for each unit type.