[WikiEN-l] MediaWiki is getting a new programming language

[Judson Dunn]

On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 9:11 PM, Steve Bennett<stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:
> Anyone know if the people who work with these templates are
> experienced coders, or just wikipedians who have gotten into it as a
> pleasant sunday afternoon mindfuck?
>

I've done a few, not as complex as that one. It's not that
complicated, it's just that the logic is all nested bracket based
things so it looks terrible and is hard to read. I would say I'm an
amateur coder. :)

A simple statement starts out ok, it's just the nesting that makes
them crazy, and {} brackets are used for almost everything.

{{#ifeq: string 1 | string 2 | value if true | value if false }} .

Also, when you pass variables in, those are often numbered, and they
are frequently in the if statements so you get {{{1}}} things, and you
want to use templates in them, which also use {{brackets}} So
everything is using brackets and nesting. The parser is magic. :)

I didn't mean to make it seem like I didn't like parserfunctions and
templates. They are amazing, and I think one of the coolest and most
innovative parts about mediawiki honestly.

They basically allow general users to create content methods on the
fly that can do a ton of work. I think they are instrumental in the
fast development of a lot of features that would have taken much
longer had the user had to explain their vision to a developer.

Templates and parserfunctions are one of the best examples of
transparency and editor agency on wikipedia.

Judson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cohesion