Replies inline in non-strict order.
Funnily, many of the syntax quirks come from the editors making the
templates, they are not imposed by the wikitext in any way, and could be
removed today if wished:
2. What is "pp-semi" why it
"move-indef"?
Names given by the users.
3. Why bgcolour is there? It's presentation. Is
any editor going to
change background color of the infobox, ever? Perhaps it has a
different tone and must be #c0c1ff?
Actually, that seems wrong for an article, since I'd expect all planets
to have the same background color (it'd be fine as a hidden template for
templates extending it).
1. "temperatures = yes" - obviously, if any
temperatures are specified
in the infobox then the temperature block is enabled. Is it possible
otherwise?
Can be done. The template could instead check for any value being set.
2. No Celsius temperatures - the machine does better
job converting
values than human plus calculator.
Can be done.
3. No link in "[[Kelvin]]" - the machine can
place link itself, can't it?
Can be done.
4. No because it just fixes some engine
problem and is problem
for its devs, not editors or, mind you, users.
6. No degree symbols: it's cleaner and users don't have to search for
the special char (°).
Both could be provided by the template.
5. Replaced all <ref>s with another
"template argument" named
"temperatures min". This works simple: the machine calculates minimal
value and applies given reference to it, if corresponding argument is
passed. If no - no reference.
Can be done.
But let's be blunt and say that markup is about
text MARKUP, not
presentation. Not to the extent that drives such text to
incomprehensibleness. If we accept the thesis that markup must be
human-readable and everything else MUST be handled by the machine no
matter how "complex" this might become for it we can achieve some
interesting results.
For example, if I'm a "newbie but intelligent" Wikipedian and open the
page on "The Earth" I see this:
{{About|the planet}}
{{pp-semi|small=yes}}{{pp-move-indef}}
{{Infobox Planet
| bgcolour = #c0c0ff
| name = Earth
| symbol = [[File:Earth symbol.svg|25px|Astronomical symbol of Earth]]
...
}}
This is how I understand what human-readable markup means:
1. Okay, I understand that "{{" and "}}" are some special symbols -
but why pipe is between what seem to be words and in the start of some
new lines?
I disagree. The pipe in {{About|the planet}} can look odd, but the pipe
at the beginning of the line looks natural. It seems like some kind of
continuation of the {{.
These are just 3 basic questions. Processed, the above
snippet might
look like this:
{{About Earth, the planet}}
{{Infobox
symbol = [[File:Earth symbol.svg|25px|Astronomical symbol of Earth]]
...
}}
That's it. Now the machine's part:
1. "About" is a special "template" or some other construct. When
it's
"ran" (processed) it accepts 2 colon-separated "arguments". The
first
specifies "name" of something (place, planet, object, etc.), the
second - its "role". Moreover, even these are article-specific and can
be changed. The point is that this line remains equally understandable
regardless of the article type.
Space separated arguments are more readable for the casual editor, but
normal editors would have a harder time to find out what's the template
and what the parameters.
Also, there are colons as parameters. How would you write as the parameter
the article [[Gypsy: A Musical Fable]] or [[Batman: Year One]] ?
By banning ':' in titles?
3. "Infobox Planet" has transformed into
just "Infobox" - we've got
"planet" defined in "About".
4. "bgcolor" is system presentation-specific thing, no place for it in
the contents.
Agree.
4. "name = Earth" - we've got this along
with "Planet".
No. We have "Earth, the planet"!
You will need the proper name in the infobox, such as "Felis silvestris
catus", even if the article is just called "Cat".
(temperatures markup)
What kind of false positives are we talking about?
Will any sane
individual spend his precious time not editing but preparing to edit
this mess?
I think they copy and paste, then fill the fields. Which is a good way
of learning as they encounter it.
Again, not to offend anyone and least - MediaWiki
devs, but if we're
talking about wikitext future the above must look much more plain:
temperatures = in Kelvin: 184, 287.2, 331
Well, just by looking at it I have no idea what those temperatures are :)
184 and 331 are probably some kind of limits, but what's that 287.2?
Some kind of boilding point? What if they were in a different order?