[Wikipedia-l] What a wiki table syntax needs to do to work withcurrent table layouts

[The Cunctator]

A wiki markup that's simple but able to handle reasonably fancy tables by
employing stylesheets.

The complicated Sainfoin table (http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Sainfoin)
would be written as:

[[table:plant
[{                            Sainfoin                             }]
[|                [image: OnobrychisViciifolia-thumb.jpg]          |]
[{                  [[Scientific classification]]                  }]
[|                      [[table:classification
    [| [[Kingdom (biology)|Kingdom]]:   | [[Plantae]]          |]
    [| [[Division (biology)|Division]]: | [[Magnoliophyta]]    |]
    [| [[Class (biology)|Class]]:       | [[Magnoliopsida]]    |]
    [| [[Order (biology)|Order]]:       | [[Fabales]]          |]
    [| [[Family (biology)|Family]]:     | [[Fabaceae]]         |]
    [| [[Genus]]:                       | '''''Onobrychis''''' |]
    [| '''[[Species]]:'''               | '''''vicifolia'''''  |]
                                   ]]
|]
[{            [[Binomial nomenclature|Binomial name]]             }]
[|                  ''Onobrychis vicifolia''                      |]
]]

{ } is for th, | | is for td.

To explain, I'll use the reduced :

[[table:plant
[{        Sainfoin          }]
[| ''Onobrychis vicifolia'' |]
]]

would be rendered as

<table class="plant">
<tr><th class="plant">Sainfoin</th></tr>
<tr><td class="plant"><em>Onobrychis vicifolia</em></td></tr>
</table>

In theory, we could write
       [[table:plant]]
[{        Sainfoin          }]
[| ''Onobrychis vicifolia'' |]

instead, by using a blank-line rule to determine when tables end. That looks
nicer and probably would be simpler to parse. But would be a bit less
flexible. Do we need that flexibility? Not necessarily.