[Wikipedia-l] Proposal for a "#PARENT" command

[Lars Aronsson]

Simon Kissane wrote:
> #PARENT [[Afghanistan]]

This would make wikipedia editing seem more like a programming
language and less like plain English.  And the original question comes
back: Is "Afghanistan" the only and natural parent/context for
"History of Afghanistan"?  Isn't "History" or at least "History of
Central Asia" just as natural a parent?  Can an article have more than
one #PARENT?  (That would be like multiple inheritance in C++ ...)

It is indeed very easy to start the article like this:

    The [[history]] of [[Afghanistan]] cannot be fully understood
    without the context of the [[history of Central Asia]].  Within
    this region of [[Central Asia]], Afghanistan plays a special role
    because of its high [[mountain]]s, bordering on the [[Himalayas]].

This is plain English, it doesn't require any software modifications,
it allows any number "parents" or other complex relationships between
articles.  However, it is the beginning of a *well-written* article,
which is really difficult to enforce through policies or software.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson
  <lars at aronsson.se>
  tel +46-70-7891609
  http://aronsson.se