User talk:BoonDock/2015/February

Please comment on Talk:Chris Kyle
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Separate categories for SANDF and SADF?
Hi again BD,

In light of my work trying to better organise the collection of SA military photos on Commons, I've proposed creating separate categories for images relating to the SADF and SANDF. After all, it has been consistently impressed upon me that the two are entirely separate entities, with the SANDF being the modern day amalgamation of the SADF, the homeland armies, and several political militant groups. Making this important distinction would avoid confusion between the two in the future. Do you think this is a good idea? Would love to hear your input.

Thanks, --Katangais (talk) 11:44, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes and no (Ja Nee), the problem is that a lot of the stuff spans both. For example, for me there is no difference between a member of the Natal Carbineers taken in 1850, 1930, 1940, 1960, 1965, 1976, 1984 or 2015 even though they span different eras, from colonial Natal, UDF, SADF pre union, post union, SANDF etc.. ???? BoonDock (talk) 12:32, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
 * The categories could of course be restricted to unique things, such as specific exercises, flags and ops, as well as units like 32 Battalion or 3 Recce that only existed under the SADF. This would reduce the amount of overlap. --Katangais (talk) 18:03, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

Photo of Gen Nkabinde
Thanks man for your appreciation on the service & div chiefs like Ferreira.

The photo is actually of MajGen JG Nkabinde and not Themba Mike Nkabinde who retired as a LtGen on 31 Mar last year. Good luck

Good work by the way. Only if I had your email address! 41.13.120.43 (talk) 20:46, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Citation Style

 * Please could you take a look at Talk:Light_Horse_Regiment and tell me what you think?, , , , BoonDock (talk) 16:50, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Ribbon display suggestion
Hi, BoonDock, I have a suggestion about the medal ribbon displays in your templates.

At present they all display the same width, even though in reality SA military ribbons come in four standard widths, 32mm, 35mm, 38mm and 44mm (1¼", 1⅜", 1½" and 1¾"). I suspect you're probably using about 40px as standard image width, based on the results in the Stephen Melville article. The present template results display as follows - you'll note that the wider ribbons display thinner:
 * Ribbon - Southern Cross Medal (1952).gif
 * Ribbon - Star of South Africa, Silver.gif
 * Lint voor Verwonding SAR.gif
 * Ribbon - Star of South Africa (1952).gif

I drew all the ribbons I created to a scale of 10px = 1mm. Now, if you used a standard height instead of a standard width, say x12px, to render the 32mm ribbon display in the same dimensions as with 40px, these ribbons would display correctly in relation to each other:
 * Ribbon - Southern Cross Medal (1952).gif
 * Ribbon - Star of South Africa, Silver.gif
 * Lint voor Verwonding SAR.gif
 * Ribbon - Star of South Africa (1952).gif

Just for interest's sake, using x37px renders the display in approximately full 1:1 size (well, on my PC, at least...):
 * Ribbon - Southern Cross Medal (1952).gif
 * Ribbon - Star of South Africa, Silver.gif
 * Lint voor Verwonding SAR.gif
 * Ribbon - Star of South Africa (1952).gif

Hope this is helpful! -- André Kritzinger (talk) 18:27, 24 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi, Very useful info thanks. I have changed the default to use x20px. You can change this as usual by specifying any value for the size. It might have broken a few things because not all ribbons are equal... :-)

Samples: BoonDock (talk) 19:04, 24 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Usually all that will break is a ribbon whose size wasn't specified and that's suddenly redrawn bigger than before. Had a few of those, but they're easy to find and fix. -- André Kritzinger (talk) 19:28, 24 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Maybe it's better to make the default size x20px? BoonDock (talk) 06:02, 25 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Maybe. But while that's about the maximum that will not disturb line spacing, x12px to x14px may be better. (On a PC, that is, I've no idea what it comes out like on a handheld...) -- André Kritzinger (talk) 10:08, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Made it 20. Any individual use can adjust it from the default. 20 looks pretty good on normal pages. BoonDock (talk) 10:13, 25 February 2015 (UTC)