[Foundation-l] Wikitext isn't a programming language, but...

[David Gerard]

On 19/01/07, Virgil Ierubino <virgil.ierubino at gmail.com> wrote:

> There's a solution here. How about we introduce another language ****that is
> only available in the Template namespace****, specifically for this
> function? Call it Wikisyntax. Wikisyntax is a pure (and simple) programming
> language, with no markup. Wikitext is a pure and simple markup language,
> with no code.


Oh yes please. Separate data and code!

MediaWiki is one of those really nice bits of technology that lets
geeks get really geeky, *but* is so simple to use that even people who
can't work computers can be fantastically productive with it. (c.f.
Firefox, LiveJournal, Mac OS X.)

It's hard to get across to some of the people pushing MediaWiki markup
to its limits just how intimidating the computer gobbledygook can be
to people who just hit "edit this page" and want to write about
something they know about the subject.


- d.