[Wikipedia-l] Transitioning toward a clean wiki syntax.

[The Cunctator]

On 8/10/02 4:20 PM, "lcrocker at nupedia.com" <lcrocker at nupedia.com> wrote:

>> Just wondering: when did LDC become in charge of determining
>> what Wikipedia's syntax should be?
>> 
>> WRT to the double/single bracket issue: We're suffering from a
>> legacy problem, since the double-bracket syntax was originally
>> uncommon (as opposed to CamelCase), it was okay that it was more
>> tedious than single-bracket.
>> 
>> The best thing from a usability standpoint to do would be to
>> switch from double brackets to single brackets.
> 
> An advantage of using double breackets only is that we'll then
> be able to use single brackets as regular punctuation, which would
> be especially handy in math articles, among others.

Since the number of times we make links in Wikipedia vastly outnumbers the
times we use single brackets as regular punctuation, it would benefit the
efficiency of the project to have single brackets denote links.

Or so the argument goes.

The counter-argument I think would have something to do with the
alternative, that is, how would we denote unmagical brackets when necessary?

> The answer to your first question is easy--you know where the code
> is.  Like everything else here in Wiki land, the "authority" falls
> on the ones willing to do the work.

Again, Wiki land != Wikipedia backend code development. What I'm saying is
that being in charge of the code vests huge power, which behooves at least a
front of humility. Is that coherent?