Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Typos

AutoWikiBrowser 6.3.1.1

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Hyphenation rules

They apparently don't work correctly for a leading parenthesis: in "(1808-1810, 1812–1813)", only the second hyphen got changed to an en-dash.BillFlis (talk) 13:26, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

... and "(1920-1921)" is left unchanged.BillFlis (talk) 13:28, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

Another issue: GA-RT-22 reported on my talk page that it incorrectly changes an album's catalog number on the Ronnie Spector article. GoingBatty (talk) 23:09, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

MOS:BADDATE request

For this situation: when a slash is used as a separator in a date range. In this case, it's the displayed range after the pipe.

• [[1978–79 in English football|1978/79]]

Dawnseeker2000 00:00, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

 Done here (hopefully). ― Qwerfjkltalk 18:29, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

@Qwerfjkl: I think the rule does not work properly on List of historical Greek countries and regions. GoingBatty (talk) 14:31, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Should the rule be extended to handle the first millennium (xx0s as well as xxx0s)? Certes (talk) 14:33, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Here's the diff:

• Aegean islands (1516/–1770-1821): most of the islands in the Aegean Sea retained their distinct local governments and charters, flourishing into maritime states. Some would provide sailors to the Ottoman fleet in exchange for advantageous trade agreements.

 ― Qwerfjkltalk 17:26, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

@Qwerfjkl: I had to look at the source to understand the <del>...</del> and <ins>...</ins> tags, but I agree you have captured the impact of the typo rule on this article. I don't know that the typo rule is making a valid correction in this case. GoingBatty (talk) 20:02, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the article is trying to say with stuff like (1224/2345-3456). ― Qwerfjkltalk 20:10, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

@Qwerfjkl: That makes two of us. GoingBatty (talk) 20:23, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

Not my field, but I guess that autonomy for each island began on various dates between 1516 and 1770, and ended with the Greek War of Independence in 1821. At least it's not been converted to a telephone number. Certes (talk) 23:26, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

@Qwerfjkl: The rule works as designed on Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, but again I'm not sure the correction is appropriate. GoingBatty (talk) 00:52, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

@Qwerfjkl: Another article where the correction is not appropriate is Sexual harassment. Is there a way to tweak the rule to prevent the false positives? GoingBatty (talk) 16:34, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

Thank you editors. This is producing lots of hits as I've begun a typo-fixing run. Dawnseeker2000 15:55, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

@GoingBatty: I think I've fixed the issue on List of historical Greek countries and regions with Special:Diff/1065462507. Can you provide examples for the other erros? ― Qwerfjkltalk 17:41, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

@Qwerfjkl: Saint-Étienne-du-Mont and Sexual harassment are the examples I have found so far. (I've also found articles where the correction is appropriate.) Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 17:48, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

What's the issue on Saint-Étienne-du-Mont? This?
…
File:St. Etienne du Mont, Facade by Henry Fox Talbot.jpg|St. Etienne du Mont, Facade by Henry Fox Talbot, circa 1853/–58.
File:Paris - Saint Etienne-du-Mont.jpg|Turn of the century
… ― Qwerfjkltalk 17:55, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

@Qwerfjkl: Correct! I wonder if "1853/58" means 1853 or 1858, while "1853–58" seems like a date range. GoingBatty (talk) 19:55, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

It looks okay to me, as it's circa 1853–58. Not sure what could be done about this. ― Qwerfjkltalk 20:26, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

I just turned a division into a subtraction here. My fault for not checking, of course, but it would be nice if RETF didn't suggest that change. Certes (talk) 13:05, 28 January 2022 (UTC)

That happened to me also. MB 15:55, 28 January 2022 (UTC)

Maybe we should consider limiting this to resolve sports-related content first. That is where I first stared noticing issues with a slash as a separator and many fixes exist in this space alone. The script is not complete as there is much to be said about the issue with uncertain birth/death years and math now. I suggest using "seasons" and or similar words as limiters. Thanks as always. Dawnseeker2000 16:11, 28 January 2022 (UTC)

I have no problem if it's removed, as it seems to be causing lots of false positives. ― Qwerfjkltalk 21:02, 28 January 2022 (UTC)

I think it's salvageable. There needs to be a fix in this area; it just needs to be refined and limited a bit. I'll take a stab at it. Dawnseeker2000 22:34, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

University

I'm just going through a few universities in a list i have, and i'm finding several University of Foo being replaced by university of Foo; this is incorrect, both in English and according to our MOS. I am not regex-fluent, but is it possible that this behaviour be changed, please? Happy days ~ Lindsay^Hello 12:10, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

@LindsayH: Could you please provide the names of the articles where the typo correction is incorrect? Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 14:15, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

I see this a fair amount. It's usually when an editor would probably have preferred to link to the actual university article page, but either it did not exist at the time or the editor that wrote it did not know it existed. I usually just manually change these to link to the university's article.

• University of [[California]] → [[University of California]]

Dawnseeker2000 15:33, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Hi, GoingBatty, sorry, i probably should have given the link at the time. This edit at Univeristy of Łódź was the time that caught mine attention and brought me here; as i made the edit, i changed back several of the original five substitutions of university for University, but i would prefer not to have to do that ~ apart from anything else i then need to adjust the summary and i notice i changed it to the wrong number that time. Hope this helps. I would imagine that if there's a way to change University but not University of, that would probably meet the need but, as i say, i don't come close to understanding regex. Happy days ~ Lindsay^Hello 15:56, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

@LindsayH: I think that edit is correct. I'd guess that the user changed "University of Łódź" → "University", and then reparsed so the typo rules changed "University" → "university". GoingBatty (talk) 16:19, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

GoingBatty Yes, the edit is correct; i'm terribly sorry i just amn't making myself clear: I made the edit with my semi-auto alternate account, Kahtar; it's correct because AWB changed University of Łódź to university of Łódź five times but, before i saved it, i manually changed all of them back or adjusted the wording (mostly deleting of Łódź i think), then reparsed, then manually changed the summary. If it recognised that University of... is only valid with a capital letter, all would have been fine. Happy days ~ Lindsay^Hello 16:43, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

This also happens at University at Buffalo. The articles has 15-20 cases of "the University at Buffalo" and every time I run AWB on this article, I have to re-cap all of them manually. MB 16:49, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

AWB trying to change "University of Łódź" to "university of Łódź"

If it helps, i've gone back to the same article and grabbed a screenshot of just what AWB is trying to do. It's still trying on the three instances i reverted on my last edit there. If i've done it correctly, the image should appear... Happy days ~ Lindsay^Hello 17:00, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

@LindsayH and MB:  Fixed both of these issues. Thanks for the examples. GoingBatty (talk) 17:24, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

Brilliant! Thank you, GoingBatty, Happy days ~ Lindsay^Hello 07:51, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

Was happened

Wikipedia records that 61 events "was happened". (Another three "was happened upon", which seem correct.) "Happen" can be transitive (e.g. 2 Peter 2:22), but such use is archaic and usually unintentional. Should we be fixing "was happened(?! upon)" → "happened" or similar? I've fixed three that "were happened" – probably not worth automating. Another 27 things "is happened", but some are legitimate quotes of ancient texts. Certes (talk) 18:31, 1 February 2022 (UTC)

Cat-like

AWB changed cat-like to catlike in Dog. It ignored the term dog-like which I manually changed to doglike after checking merriam-webster.com. Both were reverted. AWB also skipped over wolf-like and fox-like. I am wondering if there should be consistency to how AWB treats cat-like, dog-like, wolf-like and fox-life (and whether either form is allowed). Also if cat-like is acceptable or correct should cat-like be ignored? Kaltenmeyer (talk) 00:29, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

@Kaltenmeyer: I agree that the typo rules should treat "cat-like", "dog-like", etc. the same way. However, it may be challenging to expand any rule to include every possible animal. GoingBatty (talk) 03:25, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

Adding comma after MDY?

Can someone help point of the MOS where it says we should update was held on November 2, 2010 to elect all 11 members of the newly formed to was held on November 2, 2010, to elect all 11 members of the newly formed? (i.e. adding a comma after 2020). Jonatan Svensson Glad (talk) 00:37, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

MOS:DATECOMMA MB 00:53, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Duh, of course it was that easily named (/me facepalms). I've just never seen that anywhere in writing before, so it looks really weird to me. But if it's in the manual, I won't argue. Jonatan Svensson Glad (talk) 00:56, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

I call it the "wikicomma". Yes, it's weird, and hard to remember as I would never use it elsewhere. I think the idea is to treat 2020 like a relative clause qualifying November 2 (as in November 2, All Souls' Day, was foggy.) Certes (talk) 10:32, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Really, Certes? Fascinating ~ i wouldn't consider my writing to be correct if i didn't use that second comma. That's what i love about this community ~ different people/generations/educations/preferences all working together; hooray for us! Happy days ~ Lindsay^Hello 10:52, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Yeah, here in Sweden we use DMY or the ISO YYYY-MM-DD format, and when using MDY I rarely use comma after the year in my natural writing. Feels even weirder when typing things like (born March 13, 2020, in New York) since that is such a short phrase and not a full sentence. Jonatan Svensson Glad (talk) 11:53, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

savinging$3

'test saving test'.replace(/(?=([aeiou][bdfgklmnprstvz])\2{2,})(?<=\b(?:[A-Z][a-z]*|[a-z]+))\1\2{3,}(e(?:d|rs?)|i(?:ngs?|ons?|ves?)|ors?)\b/,'$1$2$2$3');

returns "test savinging$3 test". Why is this happening? Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Typos (diff ~256522285) @ThaddeusB: any insight? — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 16:42, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

The pattern matches "aving", setting $1 to "av" and $2 to "ing". There are only two captures – ([a... and (e(... – so $3 is unset and just returns "$3". "aving" is replaced by "av" + "ing" + "ing" + "$3". Certes (talk) 17:55, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

...er... what's that \2 doing to the left of capture 2? That can't be right. Certes (talk) 18:13, 17 April 2022 (UTC)