Hi,
I’m new to this venue so please have patience with me. Jimbo suggested
I contact Erik and Erik said I should post here.
Wikipedia authors of magic words and templates could really use a
character-counting parser function. All the background information can
be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&oldid=2…
- Developer_support_for_parser_function
In a nutshell though, there is currently a template on en.Wikipedia
called {{val}} that delimits numbers (places what appears to be
thinspaces very three characters in scientific notation). It currently
must use math-based techniques to parse the value and this results in
rounding errors 5–10% of the time.
A character-counting parser function would accept interrogations such
as “Are there more than four characters remaining in the string when
counting right from the decimal point?” And “If so, feed me three more
characters.” Such a parser function would be very handy for many other
purposes. With a good, bullet-proof parser function, our small army of
template authors could produce some nice new tools.
I can be reached at Greg_L_at_Wikipedia(a)comcast.net
Greg