Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org wrote:
That is of course ridiculous, only a couple of templates should be required for "box with a number in it".
On MetaWiki we implemented an overhauled user language template system, which only uses one meta-template with subpage localizations (see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:User_language). It includes a well-defined set of levels (unlike the old babel system), uses only one sorted category per language, and has various other improvements made possible with ParserFunctions. The babel system was phased out on MetaWiki long ago; see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:User_language#Comparison_with_babel_templates.
Unfortunately, the proposed extension simply copies over the old en-Wikipedia babel system with its poorly defined levels, and includes a vague fifth level which is sometimes used on en-Wikipedia but virtually unused elsewhere<3>. If I recall correctly, GerardM or the authors said they had no interest whatsoever in merging the systems (like using the level explanations).