Over the past weeks and months, User:Sanbeg has quietly and modestly put a lot of work into "Labeled Section Transclusion" as an extension feature to the Wikimedia Software. This includes code for the extension, test cases, and a new page at the Mediawiki software website describing his extension, which may be found here:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Labeled_Section_Transclusion

While I knew that something was going on (I "subscribe" to the updates on the bug), I still wasn't fully aware of the extent of his work and of the amazing flexibility and numerous features that User:Sanbeg put into this new tool. It incorporates every single feature that I personally requested, all those that others requested, and even some new ones that none of us at Wikisource previously thought of, but look very useful. It looks so useful, in fact, that I have no doubt it will be put to a great many unforseen uses that even go beyond Wikisource.

To my mind, this is no longer just a Wikisource extension (though Wikisource certainly could use it), but is already something global: a tool expands the basic flexibility of transclusion within the Mediawiki environment.

The last time this was brought up by Birgitte, Brion responded (as I best remember) that it was best to hold back for the meantime because there was still not full Wikisource agreement (on the talk page) about how such a tool should function. That is certainly no longer the case, because this tool, once again, addresses every possible need that has been expressed by anyone (at least as far as I can tell).

So what we really need now is some developer feedback!

(I will post this at Wiktech as well.)

Dovi

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