On Apr 7, 2005 11:05 AM, Richard Holton <richholton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Namespaces are types of pages that have distinct usage and often
distinct functionality built into the software. For instance, for
article [[Supercell]] (which is in the default namespace, and has no
specified prefix) will have a corresponding page in the Talk
namespace: [[Talk:Supercell]]. You will note that on a talk page you
can post a message to the bottom of the existing page via the "+" tab
(using the default skin). This feature is not available in the default
(article) namespace.
Other namespaces include: Wikipedia (see examples above),
Wikipedia_talk, Category, Category_talk, Template, and Template_talk.
Each has its own particular use.
These namespaces apply to Wikipedia, not necessarily to another mediawiki site.
The Wikipedia name space and Wikipedia_talk namespaces won't be found
on all mediawiki sites. They are on Wikipedia because that's the
project name.
Not all link prefixes (i.e. Something:) are namespaces which need to
be defined by the administrator in the database. Such a link prefix
can also indicate an interwiki link, which is also set up in the
database. In fact on many mediawiki installations Wikipedia: is an
interwiki link indication and NOT a namespace. Unless a prefix like
Something: is defined as a namespace or interwiki link prefix (or
maybe something else I don't know about) it's just part ot the article
name in the main (article) namespace.
One way to find out which namespaces are defined on a particular
mediawiki site is to go to Special:All pages which has a drop-down
list of namespaces to choose from.
And by the way that Special: prefix which indicates a page with
special php code which generates it, doesn't seem to be a third kind
of link prefix.