Minute Electron schrieb:
I feel that it would be benefititial to MediaWiki (and
this problem) to
have
a discussion and consultation about rewriting
wikitext. Currently there
are
many ambiuties that a specification would solve.
Those are both interesting points. I'd like to divide that into two distinct
thoughts, if I could:
1) Writing a spec on how wikitext works _today_
2) Writing a spec on how wikitext should work _in the future_
The former has been addressed many times on this list, and although I think
it's a valuable endeavor, I hope to set it outside the scope of this
discussion. Here, I hope merely to talk about the latter, limited only to
template language processing.
Thomas Dalton schrieb:
But should {{{{a}}}} be parsed as {{ {{a}} }} or { {{
{a} }} } or {
{{{a}}} } or {{{ {a} }}}? Depending on context, any of those could be
intended.
Those are fair questions - and maybe that's the answer. I tend to think
that there should be a defined default case, with the others being
achievable by other means.
Of the cases you mention, two seem very unlikely to me: { {{ {a} }} } since
it relies on a template with curly braces in the name (not sure if this is
allowed) and {{{ {a} }}} since it would require a parameter with a pair of
curly braces in its name. I'd think this would be very unlikely - and
currently isn't even possible.
The other option: { {{{a}}} } seems like it may have been what was intended
in some cases. Especially if you define triples as being especially closely
bound.
One thing which I had been taking for granted was the idea that there
_should_ be a way to interpret most encountered strings - and that the
system should tend towards functionality when a reasonable interpretation is
available.
The other way to approach the problem is to not make assumptions about what
the text means and throw up our hands when ambiguity arises. It would seem
this is the way the system works today. Is this the right way?
I think not parsing it at all and leaving it as text
is the
only option - at least that way it is obvious what has gone wrong.
Well, not as obvious as a nice fat parse error would be. :)
-- Jim
On 7/3/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
But should {{{{a}}}} be parsed as {{ {{a}} }} or { {{ {a} }} } or {
{{{a}}} } or {{{ {a} }}}? Depending on context, any of those could be
intended. I think not parsing it at all and leaving it as text is the
only option - at least that way it is obvious what has gone wrong.
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