Here a quote from a current thread into wikitech-l.

Using #lst to implement variables into wikitext is really "a terrible hack" in your opinion too...? If it is, I feel myself really uncomfortable and depressed... :-( I'd like a clear statement about, and - if needed - clearly stated limits in the use of #lst (that IMHO is implicitely something that "implements named variables" into wikitext, simply calling those variables "named sections")

Alex

2011/1/4 Roan Kattouw roan.kattouw@gmail.com

What a "creative" use of #lst allows, if it is really an efficient, light

routine, is to build named variables and arrays of named variables into one

page; I can't imagine what a good programmer could do with such a powerful

tool. I'm, as you can imagine, far from a good programmer, nevertheless I

built easily routines for unbeliavable results. Perhaps, coming back to the

topic..... a good programmer would disrupt wikipedia using #lst? :-)

Using #lst to implement variables in wikitext sounds like a terribl hack, similar to how using {{padleft:}} to implement string functions in wikitext is a terrible hack.

Thanks Roan, your statement sound very alarming for me; I'll open a specific thread about into wikisource-l quoting this talk. I'm doing any efford to avoid server/history overload, since I know that I am using a free service (I just fixed {{loop}} template to optimize it into it.source, at my best...) and if you are right, I've to change deeply my approach to #lst.