2009/9/25 Brian Brian.Mingus@colorado.edu:
I am not here saying that it is a bad feature, not a bit. In fact I have previously advocated on this list for the ability for users to specify form-like interfaces. What I am saying is that I think it's premature. There is a tradeoff that needs to be balanced here. It's easy to add new features and hard to fix the old one. As we add new features however we diverse farther and farther from the possibility of fixing wikitext. This is especially when efforts to add new features are done entirely out of the context of a clear strategy for eventually fixing wikitext.
So before a feature such as this is implemented, or any new substantial language is added to MediaWiki (such as ParserFunctions, or this interface specification language), I would like to see work done on the Strategy wiki. I don't think new work such as this should be done outside of the context of a very clear vision of how we will eventually fix the whole problem. And I'm entirely willing to help.
You seem to be missing my point (or at least are not refuting it): if implemented properly, with the minimal assumptions I mentioned, subsequent reworking of wikitext *wouldn't* *matter*, because the template call editor could easily be ported to the 'new language' or whatever we end up with. It wouldn't put us any further away from fixing wikitext; the trade-off you mentioned does not exist IMO.
Roan Kattouw (Catrope)