User:Whitejay251/DEP holdovers/How I make this list

How I make this list

This should evolve into instructions for updating this list.

I currently make the list by hand using the compare selected version option on the history pages of the A-K and L-Z lists. As the new version I use the edit in which the latest generation of the list was pasted. I've been experimenting with which edit to use as the old version as discussed below.

From the relevant help page:

In the old version paragraphs which differ are yellow and in the new version they are green... Text removed within a paragraph is shown in red on the old version. New text within a paragraph is shown in red on the new version. If a whole paragraph was removed or added, the text is not red but just black, while the other side is blank (white). Unchanged text is black on grey, only parts before and after changed text is shown.

How they impletment showing "only parts before and after changed text is shown" is that when there are three or more paragraphs (lines) before or after changed paragraphs, a line break and label is inserted. Example: Line 23: followed by two grey lines and changes. Any lines that are not shown within the line breaks are unchanged and need to be included in the list.

So what I will look for are:

lines in gray (excluding letter section headers)
line breaks and labels

Experiment with previous edit

As mentioned, I've recently made a modification in my methodology in regards to which edit I use as the old version in edit history comparison. Previously I used the edit just prior to the latest generation paste (Old Method). I'm currently experimenting with using the second latest generation paste as the old version (New Method - Example).

Old Method pros:

Inputing the versions to compare is quicker and easier.
Pages that have gotten some polish or are redlinks are less likely to appear on the holdover list.

Old Method cons:

pages that should be included on the list may not be (false negatives), due to a greater possibility of human error, due to:
paragraphs/lines that have been modified but not removed, such as when an annotation is added, appear as the yellow (old)-green (new) lines as described in the help page. As only gray lines are aligned so that they are displayed together in the old and new version columns, it is possible that they will be bunched together and more human effort is needed to find them. (This is in effect adding a third category of lines that need to be looked for to the list above).

New method pros:

Only gray lines and line breaks need to be looked for, making a faster scan theoretically possible. Because of this, it will be simpler to make an automated/script based solution based on this method.
The "this is a list of" description above is literally correct (admittedly not a big pro, if you're not a stickler for semantics).

New method cons:

Includes pages that were removed from the previous generation listing, but find their way back onto listing due to lag between the database dump and the posting of the list.
Since it includes previous removals and pages that would be false positives under the old method, the listing will be loooonger...