[Mediawiki-l] page synonyms - many ways to build page redirects ...

[Monahon, Peter B.]

Hi fellow MediaWiki sysops,

     Does anyone have any clever (easy? automatic?) ways to build large
quantities of page redirects?  

	For instance, to sort pages and sub pages we'll probably name
them "0700", "0800" and so on - chapters.  Then we'll have individual
page in each chapter - "0700/0701" and "0700/0702.1(a)" and so on.  But,
if someone types "700" into the [Go][Search] I want them to go to
"0700".  And if they type "702.1a" (or "702.1(a)"), I'd like them to go
immediately to page "0700/0702.1(a)". 
     
     Sure, http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Redirection says to build a
page for each synonym and put on it:
     
	     #redirect [[pagename]]
     
	I note: "... to avoid problems with infinite recursion, if the
redirect target is another redirect page, the second redirect is not
applied..." so I have to build a separate page for each redirect, right?

     For example, I now have page "700", so I "move" it ( see
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Moving_a_page ) to "0700" and that
works, giving 2 pages, with old page "700" seamlessly redirecting to new
page "0700".

     Has anyone seen or developed any other ways than building a
redirect page for each synonym?  What do you all do to give your users
easy access to look up information and go directly to the answer page?  

	A look-up substitution index might work (smells like a
hard-coded php array hooked extension?).  I think I'm after having the
user type their familiar name of the page they want to see (the name
that they are using for ancient DOS, HTML, or PDF resources) and see the
formally-named wiki page come up immediately - and there may be more
than one informal name by which they may try to get there, by the way.
     
     Thanks!
     
     PS - Again, a link to an http://www.MediaWiki.org answer would be
great - I couldn't find any but the links mentioned above!