User talk:Marc J./Template:Family Members

Oi! Nice looking template, a quick question: What about us holier-than-thou types who has donated - will it take a 4th character? --Kristian 7 December 2005 00:00 (CET)

Also, I can't get the titles part to work. Help? --Kristian 7 December 2005 00:25 (CET)

Ah, a holier-then-thou guy, eh? Well... let see what I can do for you people... ~ Marc J. 7 December 2005 04:00 (CET)

Well, I think this should work. I could have sworn that I added a 4th character for donators back when I first made it... maybe I was dreaming. Anyways, I was looking at your family page and I think I know why you can't get the titles to work... mind if I tinker with your page? (Actually, nevermind that. I think I can fix my Template without messing with your page) ~ Marc J. 7 December 2005 04:09 (CET)

Yep, I know what the problem is. I was looking your page over and I figured it out - I had no idea what a template did when I first made this, (hell, I still don't). Mostly, the problem is my coding. I could, theoritically, go in and fix it. However, I could also make the template worse. I'm going to try and give it a whirl... if it's broken, at lest I'll know what I did... here goes, wish me luck! ~ Marc J. 7 December 2005 04:14 (CET)

Kristian, since you like this template so much, have you taken a look at my other one? ~ Marc J. 7 December 2005 05:56 (CET)

I was thinking of using your other template as well. Maybe tonight, when I get time. --Kristian 7 December 2005 14:19 (CET)

Titles (Or 'Marc J. Talks To Himself')

Let me see... how many titles are there? Ruler, Judge, General, Banker, Duke, Region Lord. That's six.... first draft code looks good, time for testing. ~ Marc J. 7 December 2005 05:56 (CET)

Ouch... in testing, it bombed, big time. See, this is why we have specially trained codemonkeys who can do this stuff! Let a novice like me loose and I completely bomb it... damn, this is gonna take some major work! Oh well, 'journey of a thousand miles' time I guess. ~ Marc J. 7 December 2005 04:53 (CET)

Okay, I'm going to say damn one more time: damn! Now I know why it takes Tom so long to code stuff... this is going to take a miracule... ~ Marc J. 7 December 2005 04:53 (CET)

No, not a miracule... just a genius. It works now. Oh, and I remembered where I added the fourth character; I added it to my table. I originally used the whole code, (I didn't know what a template was) on my page so I put it in there. I don't have four characters active, but I included my retired character in the chart.

However, this begs the question: should I make several different verisions of this template? One for non-donators, (with only three characters), one for people who donated, (with four characters), and another one for 5+ characters, (in case people want to do what I did and put their retired/executed characters up with the others)? I don't know, but it would be a good exercise for me... I'll think about it. ~ Marc J. 7 December 2005 05:56 (CET)

I think you should make two versions, one with 3 and one with 4 chars. Alternatively. here's a learning project for you: Figure out how to use optional parameters in templates. You might also want to look at only putting in the ,,s if there actually are titles set. --Kristian 7 December 2005 14:19 (CET)