Read Me First

WELCOME
Looking for CoCo help? If you are trying to do something with your old Color Computer, read this quick reference. Want to contribute to this wiki? Be sure to read this first. This CoCo wiki project was started on October 29, 2004. --OS-9 Al

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This page was last updated on 04/2/2013. Total Pages: 744. Total Files: 994.

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Home / Help - Read Me First

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Read Me First

Here are a few quick things to know about using this wiki.

Templates

This MediWiki software supports Templates. A template is a page with the name "Template:TemplateName". Anything on that template page will appear anywhere you include it on another page as "{{TemplateName}}". For example, if there was a page called "Template:UltimateAnswer", and that page contained the text "42", you could include that text on any page just by adding:

{{UltimateAnswer}}

Navigation Templates

A set of Wiki templates have been created to help with categories and navigation of this site. When creating a new page, or editing an existing one, please ensure that the top of the file begins with a Nav template, such as:

{{NavArticles}}

Each Nav template contains references to other templates. In the case of the NavArticles template, it contains the following:

{{Home}}{{Articles}}{{PageName}}

And each of those contains actual Wiki tags and/or categories, as needed.

Home contains the link to the Main Page of this wiki, and a custom text for the link (so it says "Home" instead of "Main Page"):

[[Main_Page|Home]]

Next is the Articles link:

[[Category: Articles]]{{Delim}}[[Articles]]

Above, it will first contain a Category tag for the Articles section, then a Delimeter (which is currently " - " for this Wiki), then a link to the top level page for Articles.

Lastly, is the PageName template:

 - '''{{PAGENAME}}'''
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This will just display a non-breaking space, dash, non-breaking space, then the current page name in bold. (" - Read Me First"). The four dashes on the next line will create a horizontal line to separate the content of the page from the navigation links at the top.

So, when you start a page in an existing section, be sure to start with the appropriate NavXXX template reference at the top. You can find it by editing a similar page in that section. If it is an entirely new section/category, you will have to create a new NavTemplate.

Creating a new Navigation Template

If you are creating a new section of the site, create the new page (like "Digitizers"), and add a reference to the soon-to-be-created NavTemplate at the top of the page, using the following format (like "NavDigitizers" or "NavPrinters"):

{{NavSectionName}}

When you save the page, that will be a new link to an empty template page. When you view this page, click on the new link, and fill out your new NavSectionName template like...

{{Home}}{{SectionName}}{{PageName}}

Section Name would something like "Digitizers" or "Printers". "{{PageName}}" is a special macro built in to the Wiki that will show the current page name. Save this, and you will get a link to the new empty SectionName and "PageName" will show up with the current page name. Click and edit the new SectionName and make it look like this "Articles" example above (Category and link to the main SectionName page).

[[Category: SectionName]]{{Delim}}[[PageName]]

"[[PageName]]" is the link to the main page of that section, which is usually just the section name, and matches the category. i.e., if you create a category called "Digitizers", the main page should probably be "Digitizers".

Once we get all this cleaned up, we will have an easier to navigate template. Plus, I can edit the Home link at any time to out a message or alert on every page of the site.

There should be no pages without this navigation.

See Also

I am not sure if this is still relevant, but I also have this page: Using Navigation Templates

Template Variables

Templates can also contain parameters, passed in as variables. There is a "Template:InfoBox" that does this. Inside the template, it can reference named variables by their name with three curly braces around them, like "{{{variablename}}}". When the template is called, variables are specified with "name=value" like this:

{{GameInfoBox |
| picture = Blochead.gif
| author = ???
| publisher = [[Computerware]]
| year= 1983
| media = Disk/Tape
| requires = Color Computer 1,2,3, 16K RAM
| graphic = 256x192x2
| notes =
}}

Then whatever code for "GameInfoBox" will appear, with the values for each variable substituted where it goes. "Blochead.gif" would appear wherever {{{picture}}} was in the template.