[WikiEN-l] Ok, so about that ISBN template...

[Delirium]

Steve Bennett wrote:

>Here's the deal. I created this ISBN template {{ISBN}} which does
>nothing very exciting. It simply substitutes the text "ISBN {{{1}}}".
>However, my reasoning for creating it seemed sound: to provide an
>abstraction layer so users don't have to learn the rather arbitrary
>syntax that Wikipedia uses to deal with ISBN codes. Instead, they can
>use the same syntax they use everywhere: {{template name|argument}}.
>  
>
Sounds sensible to me.  "Magic" syntax where seemingly normal-looking 
text gets transformed is evil, because it's unclear what's going on, and 
prone to breakage.  MediaWiki took a great leap forward by moving from 
magical CamelCase links to [[marked-up links]], for example.  Just about 
the only necessary evil I can think of is the auto-date-formatting; 
dates are too common to really be done any other way, although it too is 
slightly evil and sometimes kicks in or doesn't kick in in unexpected ways.

-Mark