Stan Shebs wrote:
I'm still wondering why this would matter.
It matters because it is impossible to generate a proper parse tree for
a template that contains only part of a table. A table is one object.
So what if a group of
templates is being used together? If that's going to be disallowed,
that seems like a major change in the language, not a detail of
parser implementation.
Maybe you are underestimating the vast differences in implementation
between the current not-really-a-parser and what I am working on.
There is nothing wrong with using a group of templates together, but
there *is* something majorly wrong with patching together one object (a
table, in this case) using pieces from different places. It works with
the current not-really-a-parser because it takes the wiki source texts
from the templates, sticks them together somehow, and then converts them
to HTML. This kind of practice is exactly what leads to all the problems
with our current not-really-a-parser. A proper parser should parse each
template individually, and then use its parse tree in the processing of
the page that uses it.
Any definition of template that doesn't
work a lot like a C-type preprocessor macro is likely to be
difficult to explain to users.
Uhm. I don't think so. Editors are not supposed to know about C or
similar pre-processors.
Quite to the contrary, I think it is quite hard to explain to users how
the taxoboxes are patched together from little pieces that are scattered
around several templates. If the entire table was contained in *one*
template (which, of course, may include other templates inside it, but
nevertheless it represents the whole table), I'm pretty sure that not so
technically savvy people would have less trouble understanding the
concept of templates.
I am sorry if I'm sounding like I'm pounding your current solution to
the taxobox problem. I hope that at least some of you understand my
position. I have put work into this parser, and it would be a shame if
it's not going to be used just because it breaks something that isn't
really supposed to work at all. It would be virtually impossible for me
to make your current way work with a real parser. To compensate, I am
perfectly happy to help you convert all the taxoboxes to a proper structure.
Greetings,
Timwi