User:Claus chr/RenamedApps

The Problem

When an application changes its name it creates maintenance problems for us, and raises the question: When and how should the change be reflected in our pages? To maintain two pages is probably not a good idea, and we want to avoid redirections when we can, so the following procedure might work:

After the new name is announced it will take some time (at least 6 month) for this to appear in most recent distros, so we keep the name of the old page, add an info box announcing the new name and a link for the new name in the appropriate Application list - the link goes to the old page.

At some point we move the old page (with all its translations) to a new page, changes all mention of the app to its new name, changes the info text to tell about the old name, and changes the links in Application lists of both old and new version to the new page. (At an even later point we can remove all reference to the old name, but that in not urgent.)

This is a lot of maintenance, and it has to be done twice! We can use templates to reduce the required work considerably. We would then replace all occurences of the old app name in text with a template inserting that name - changing the name is then a simple matter of changing one template. Similarly all links would be replaced by a template. Finally the info box could be made with one of two general templates, which both takes the old and new names as parameters.

The Templates

Assuming AppA changes name to AppB. We would have have a page named "AppA" and in that page (and maybe other pages as well) several mentions of AppA in the text, in section headlines and in image captions. All of these mentions would be replaced by the template {{AppA}} (this naming convention require the least work to add). Also at the top of the page "AppA" we would place {{NewName|old name|new name}}, which sets up an info box mentioning that the application is changing its name. Perhaps it would be a good idea to add a parameter for the date?

Any link to the page would look like [[Special:myLanguage/AppA]] and would be replaced by the template [[Special:myLanguage/{{AppA}}]] (again minimizing work; other links involving AppA can be handled similarly.

The Procedures

When the change is first announced

• The above mentioned templates are added wherever the app is mentioned and for every link to its page.
• Links to the new app name (still going to the old page) are added to the application list(s) alongside the old app name

After some time (half a year?)

• The app page and all its translations are moved to new pages reflecting the new name
• The template {{NewName|...}} is changed to {{OldName|...}} - only the name of the template (and possibly the date) needs to be changed.
• The templates {{AppA}} and {{Special:myLanguage/AppA}} are changed so that they display the new name rsp. link to the new page.

After a very long time

• Remaining traces of the ols app name are removed from the application lists and the info box is deleted. No more changes are needed.

Problems

• Is {{Special:myLanguage/AppA}} a valid name for a template?