David Gerard wrote:
> 2009/1/13 Tim Starling
<tstarling(a)wikimedia.org>rg>:
>
>> The template equivalent to refactoring is the introduction of
>> meta-templates, such as {{infobox}}.
Nothing wrong with that; C++ has abstract classes which aren't intended to
be instantiated directly, but form useful models for hiding commonality
among derived classes within a common framework.
> The other useful thing that can be done with
templates is to
> standardise the field names in them as much as possible per wiki.
Which makes their derivations all the more familiar as editors use a wider
range of templates.
> The reason? To enhance machine readability of data
in them. People
> are SERIOUSLY INTERESTED in this.
>
> The user interface for templates is not entirely horrible -
> {{templatename|field1=value|field2=value}} etc. As long as that stays
> reasonably assumable, the plumbing behind it can be as esoteric as is
> needed - no-one really cares as long as it works reliably.
And at the page-edit level, can be more easily parsed by relatively simple
tools.