"Simetrical" Simetrical+wikilist@gmail.com wrote in message news:7c2a12e20711161001q5b8e3034w5e46b627b878a3b4@mail.gmail.com...
On 11/14/07, Steve Bennett
stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
I realise that the term "magic word" is somewhat ambiguous
Not really, it's quite specific. Anything that uses includes/MagicWord.php is a magic word. That's mostly curly-brace stuff, though.
I see an ambiguity.
There are magic words that are directives to the parser, e.g. __NOTOC__ and there are magic words that are variables to be expanded, e.g. {{PAGENAME}}. I don't necessarily consider it a problem to have the two forms, so long as the syntax is unambiguous (i.e. wrap in __ for parser directives, {{ }} for variables). I am not sure if this is currently the case or not.
The ambiguity arises from using a single word to describe both kinds of item. It is confusing to use a single word to refer to two distinct concepts, and this is not helped by describing them as 'magic words', a name which only serves to make them seem even more mysterious. It would be better if they were referred to as 'parser directives' and 'built-in variables' respectively, and not grouped together under the single term. If it were up to me, I'd lose the term 'magic word' altogether.
- Mark Clements (HappyDog)