IMSLP Forums

I don't know much about the internal structures/functions of wikis, but I was wondering if it would be possible to change the Category: function (or add another one on top - with the same function but different names), and instead of the composer pages saying "Category:Beethoven, Ludwig van" they could say "Composer:Beethoven, Ludwig van". And later on the same page, where it says 'Pages in category "Beethoven, Ludwig van" it could be changed to say Compositions by Beethoven (i.e. omit the comma and everything after, and instead of "pages in" say "compositions by").

That would look a lot more user-friendly, and less "exposed" in a way (since the users don't care whether it's a category or a page, or whatever the wiki-function of that page is, but about the content, and they would identify more easily with "compositions by beethoven" than with "pages in catrgory "beethoven, ludwig van" - I think).

Is this possible? If so, is it difficult to be implemented? (I understand it would be a great great great PITA to change the already-existing pages of composers, although a script may be used to automate the process?) (As I said, I don't know much about the workings of wiki - just an idea).

This might be a related little problem that may be solved in the same go...
When I recently tried to send the url of an imslp-workpage for the convenient download of parts to the orchestra members,
several recipients had trouble to open the link by clicking on it, because some mail programs balk at a komma (Apple's "Mail" is one of them.
url's of workpages without a komma before the composer would be much more userfriendly

The trouble with changing to "composer" would be that there are plenty of writers of manuals or books on music who aren't composers, and IMSLP does include books.

Too bad we English speakers don't commonly refer to composers alternatively as "authors"; that would solve the whole problem.

Well, we could have an "Authors" or "Writers" category too! And if a composer has written a text (e.g. Berlioz, Rimsky-Korsakov, whatever), then the books could be in another section, so we'd have "Compositions by X" and below that "Books by X" or "Articles by X".

The reason that this would be essentially impossible is the fact that "Category:" is a magic phrase in Mediawiki. You might be able to change the name via translation (though I actually doubt even that), but you can never split it without changing half the code. Categories are just an exception accepted throughout the code, and they are treated like an exception in every way possible.

Fair enough

Thanks a lot - I had no idea, but this makes it a lot clearer.

I also think "Composer:" is better for composer category.
While "Template:" is not special except usage of {{}} now, I think there is a possibility to be able to use other name space as a category in the future, and I think we can ask MediaWiki developpers it.