[Wikipedia-l] A vision for wiki syntax, documented
Jens Frank
JeLuF at gmx.de
Thu May 15 23:28:10 UTC 2003
On Thu, May 15, 2003 at 01:08:18PM -0500, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> The contents of the table IS IN THE ARTICLE, whether you hide it off in
> another page or not. The tables are part of Wikipedia's content, and if
> they aren't easily editable, they aren't useful.
>
> That said, I'm still open to the idea of transclusion in general: that
> is, having pages whose whole contents are included into a referencing
> page. That would allow us not only to separate things like tables, but
> also things like boilerplate text. A syntax like [[include:xxx]] could
> be used. That would also get us nested tables (and it might also be a
> performance nightmare!)
We discussed this on #wikipedia some days ago. There would be another namespace
for HTML-Snipplets. Those snipplets can contain variables, e.g. enclosed by
%%. A snipplet might be a piece of code to include an image with a label,
it might be a table, or a boilerplate text. The snipplet ImageFloatingRight
might perhaps look like this:
<div style="float: right">
[[Image:%%Image%%]]<BR>
<center>
''%%Label%%''
</center>
</div>
In an article, it can be used by its name:
{{ImageFloatingRight
Image=Eiffel tower.jpg
Label=The Eiffel Tower in Paris
}}
A Countrybox might start like this:
{{CountryFactBox
Flag=usa.png
Motto=In God We Trust
Capital=Washington D.C.
...
}}
This is more flexible than just stylesheets:
- More features of HTML can be used.
- More users can edit the HTML snipplets than edit the CVS-based stylesheets.
- It's easier to edit than having various stylesheet elements in the text.
- Layout and Content are strictly divided.
Possible later additions:
- Factsheet wizard that users without HTML-Skills can use to generate
the normal factsheet tables used in so many variants
- Fill-in wizard that shows the rendered snipplet and has input fields
where the variables are.
Regards,
jens
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