On Thu, 2005-03-31 at 10:40 +0200, Magnus Manske wrote:
3. We change our wiki syntax, however slightly.
Besides everyone
using MediaWiki having to learn a new (altered) syntax, we'll have
to change *every* page in our databases, including *all* old
revisions. For that, we'll have to write a 100% perfect parser for
the old syntax that can create 100% perfect new code. Good luck
with that.
Yep, that's the only acceptable option. You are correct that it
will be difficult, but that doesn't change the fact that we have
to do it that way.
It should be obvious, though, that we /don't/ want a "perfect"
parser for the current syntax--we want the existing parser just
as it is now, warts and all, which is what the current text is
written to. That parser will have to be modified to output the
new syntax when we update, and that should be perfect (and
/can/ be , because it will be well-defined at that point).
--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee(a)piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/>
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/>