I changed the subject to "page fragment links", I hope that's the right title for this technic (is it called "anchor setting"?).
[...] though I haven't made much
noise about it because I'm still not sure they're needed--for one thing, they encourage long pages, and I don't like my syntax. But headings do seem like a natural match there.
This is great! I've wanted this a few times lately.
Some people in the German Wikipedia have been requesting this lately, too.
But I don't like the idea. Having an index above the article is a good idea, but linking into an article is not. I makes the Wikipedia more static. Headings will change, articles will be completely rewritten with a new structure, and people shouldn't worry about it ("Hmm, I'll better leave it like it is, or xx links will be broken"). It also makes the syntax more complicated. Too many pages are already a mess because you need html for tables and pictures that are integrated into the text. Please think about implementing about a wiki syntax solution for this (there already is one for the tables)!
It is also true that people will tend to write longer pages instead of splitting them up at a certain point.
Please don't implement this "feature" (or better: please turn it off) before we have discussed enough about it. I think this could have consequences comparable to subpages, so we should think twice before using it.
Kurt