* Owen Davis owen@wikia-inc.com [Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:50:48 -0800]:
I think that would be a nice feature to have. Amazingly enough, WikiScripts is not of the extensions that we have in our codebase at wikia (I think we're over 800+), but I will take a look at the implementation. The <lua> parser hook allows for parameters, but
that's
not the same. Having access to normal template parameters would allow
a
lua template to act as a drop in replacement for an existing template, which is essential.
WikiScripts parses and executes it's scripts via PHP, which has both advantages and disadvantages. Lua extension should run faster, however it is not suitable for every hosting out there, because PHP Lua module is uncommon. I wonder whether it's possible to run around without PHP Lua extension, perhaps to daemonize Lua then exchange data between apache/mod-php and lua processes via named pipes? It is really sad that PHP itself does not have stable "VM" allowing to execute safe subset of it's own code in server-side scripts (it had only some beta or alpha status module). I wonder whether it is possible to cross-translate the subset of WikiScripts or Lua into PHP source, then PHP eval it (however would that work with HipHop?).
Also it would be great if WikiScripts or Lua extension allowed to easily bind functions / class wrappers for another MediaWiki extensions. The extension I develop uses PHP eval for interpretation of the scripts, I am looking for adaption of WikiScripts to use it in conjunction with my extension. Dmitriy