On 11/14/07, MinuteElectron <minuteelectron(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
It is common knowlege with those who follow MediaWiki development
discussions and have done for a while that changing wikitext syntax is
considered A Bad Thing (tm) and will most likely get any commits reverted.
The parsing and rendering of all sorts of weird cases in wikitext syntax is
going to change with the implementation of a new parser not based on inline
pattern transformation. You can ask for the changes to be small. You can
demand that your favourite pathological corner case be treated correctly.
But there will be changes. They're not optional. The only way to build a
parser with the exact same behaviour in every case is the current one is
to copy it line by line.
See
http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?ConsumeParseRenderVsMatchTransform
So if this is genuinely the position of the developers - that *any* change,
no matter how insignificant, to the syntax, will not be allowed - then there
will never be a new parser. Earlier discussion with Nick Jenkins led to a
more fruitful compromise, though.
So: is that compromise acceptable? If 99% of actual pages render correctly,
is that good enough to start rolling out the parser?
Steve