System requirements table OS prefix/suffix

[Pridit 39]

I feel that there should be an official stance on this, myself and Soeb have been doing this for quite some time and it was wrong of me to leave this unmentioned for so long. I have been talking with Soeb and we both agree that putting for example the prefix "Windows" in the windows system requirements table is redundant as it already has a title of Windows. Simply put it's redundant and does not need to be mentioned twice. The benefit being it will conserve space and condense information which I believe is a worthwhile change. There are other reasons for removing the prefix/suffix which Soeb will outline when he replies.

[Quaix 1]

Let me just copy and paste what I wrote previously:

 

While it's true that the box mentions Windows at the top and that having it is redundant, I don't think eliminating redundancy should be the sole criterion. In this case "XP", or "7" or something like "7/8" looks bizarre because we expect to see the word "Windows" in front, the latter even looking like a fraction. I think "Windows" should be left in for aesthetic reasons.

 

 

Having said that, it doesn't matter too much which way it's done as long as it's both documented and consistent. Currently it's neither.

[Pridit 39]

Having said that, it doesn't matter too much which way it's done as long as it's both documented and consistent. Currently it's neither.

Yeah I agree, you just made a note about aesthetic so I assumed you were opposed to this making it necessary to open a discussion. Once a verdict is reached we can go underway to making it official and consistent.

[Pridit 39]

This discussion is not just about Windows, in the OP I merely gave an example. We're including all system requirements tables for every operating system in this discussion. Prefix or suffix.

[Nicereddy 109]

What about Linux where there are multiple distros?

[Pridit 39]

I think I'm going to start to make a move towards this, if there is no further discussion or argument then this will become official. What this entails will be removing the prefix/suffix in the system requirements OS table. Regarding Windows/OS X/Linux being in the table Soeb mentioned I think this will have to be for another discussion but for now I just want to reinforce removing the prefix/suffixes for the reasons mentioned in the OP and in Soeb's post. Upon conclusion I'll also take the liberty of modifying the sample article to reflect this.

[Nicereddy 109]

I'm all for this, would it be possible to get a bot to remove it automatically?

[Garrett 214]

Yes, I can easily add it to the filter set I run with Garrbot (of course some unusual combinations might not be caught that way).

[Pridit 39]

Since there has been no further discussion for a good period of time I will be making this official now, I have just taken the time to go through the sample article to make these changes. Now, prefixes/suffixes should be removed on all articles, if we could get Garrbot to run a sweep, regardless of how effective it is will go a long way to helping and reduce some of the manual work that will need to be done. Once Garrbot has done the sweep I'll consider this concluded unless there is further discussion necessary.

 

The official separator should be a comma (,) and nothing else. We'll consider generating SMW related stuff once this format has been properly established. I have also taken it upon myself to edit the system requirements in the sample article to allow for service packs as this is relevant. If we could get Garrbot to automate this process (keeping SP1, SP2 etc but removing any other prefix/suffix for Windows and OS X) that would be a huge help.

[Pridit 39]

[Automated] This discussion has concluded and a verdict has been reached. If this is not the case and there are still matters left undiscussed please contact a member of staff to get the topic reinstated.