[Wikipedia-l] A vision for wiki syntax, documented

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