In message <f30e42de0608070717x7b6726al462b582a4d3e854e(a)mail.gmail.com>om>,
Stephen Bain <stephen.bain-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w(a)public.gmane.org>
writes
You should ask the developers why this was implemented
as a magic word
in the first place, I'm not really sure of their reasons.
Most likely it was a very quick and easy way to make a large number of
existing ISBN numbers suddenly come to life.
Yes, I would imagine that that would be why. That's probably why so
many variations will actually work and produce viable links, to
account for inconsistent usage in the past.
It's been a magic word since before I discovered Wikipedia (in early
2003), which was quite a while before we had templates.
--
Arwel Parry
http://www.cartref.demon.co.uk/