Template talk:Sharp

This template is an alternative to {{music|sharp}}, and produces identical results: ♯♯. More extra work and extra bytecount to type the "music|" part, so this template is good shorthand.

You can also do {{music|#}} and {{music|b}} – that's a standard-ASCII number/pound sign (octothorpe) and a lowercase letter b. Unfortunately, you can't do {{#}} or {{b}}: those templates have other wiki meanings.

I tried just typing the actual symbol ♯, which works, but its font is too large and creates extra space between lines. Flat is the same way. Obviously the wiki code for these templates reduces the font size.

There is a problem with the flat character, no matter which method you use to make it: it adds an extra space before the flat sign. Sharp doesn't. Example: G♭ minor, G♯ minor. Makes displays look really crappy.

However, what worries me is both these characters, flat and sharp, are HTML 5.0. If you have an older 4.0 compliant browser, as many readers do, the symbol will display as a question mark or a square or blob or somesuch thing. I would therefore suggest refrain from using ANY of the flat or sharp templates and just type the word: G-flat minor. The convention is to put a dash between the letter key and the word "flat" or "sharp", with no spaces. I see people do mass changes on pages that have the word spelled out, to the symbol template, always {{music|sharp}}, not {{sharp}}. Doing such mass changes and using these templates is a bad idea IMO, for compatibility. LisztianEndeavors (talk) 22:45, 28 January 2020 (UTC)