On 09/11/2007, Jim Wilson wilson.jim.r@gmail.com wrote:
Even then, what use is such a grammar? It probably won't help simplify the MediaWiki Parser significantly since all the ignored features would still need to be accounted for, as they would be in any other application that hopes to integrate with MW syntax (for example an external WYSIWYG editor).
It would allow it to be implemented in a testable manner in other languages, and hence in many other programs than MediaWiki. Other programs with cause to process wikitext presently have to reverse-engineer the parser (always, so far, bodgily) or run the actual PHP parser code. Neither is a really good idea.
- d.