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Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales schrieb:
Ok, I see your point. But the right thing to do, I think, is to point out that PhpWiki syntax is wrong and outdated and nonstandard.
Concering MediaWiki, this inevitably leads to one of the following scenarios:
1. We declare MediaWiki the standard, based on the total number of pages using this standard. Call me "Bill" ;-)
2. We make our parser understand other wiki syntax *in addition* to our own. If you think our current "parser" is a mess, wait for this to happen. It won't be a standard, but a syntax swamp.
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.
*However*, if every (major) wiki would have a wiki-to-XML and a XML-to-wiki parser (which we'll have to do anyway, in a way, for #3), *then* we could - - read our wiki text from the database for editing - - convert it on-the-fly to XML - - convert the XML to any syntax the user wants, including a yet-to-be written standard - - convert the user's input to XML on saving - - convert the XML to MediaWiki syntax for storing in the database
A nice side effect would be "wiki beautification", so no matter what mess the last newbie made with the source, it always looks nice and clean :-)
Magnus