[Wikitech-l] Character-counting parser function

Hi, I’m new to this venue so please have patience with me. Jimbo suggested I contact Erik and Erik said I should post here. Wikipedia authors of magic words and templates could really use a character-counting parser function. All the background information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&oldid=2… - Developer_support_for_parser_function In a nutshell though, there is currently a template on en.Wikipedia called {{val}} that delimits numbers (places what appears to be thinspaces very three characters in scientific notation). It currently must use math-based techniques to parse the value and this results in rounding errors 5–10% of the time. A character-counting parser function would accept interrogations such as “Are there more than four characters remaining in the string when counting right from the decimal point?” And “If so, feed me three more characters.” Such a parser function would be very handy for many other purposes. With a good, bullet-proof parser function, our small army of template authors could produce some nice new tools. I can be reached at Greg_L_at_Wikipedia(a)comcast.net Greg