[Wikipedia-l] Transitioning toward a clean wiki syntax.

[Lars Aronsson]

lcrocker at nupedia.com wrote:
> Hmm.  That might work too, and would be even simpler. Thanks for
> the suggestion--I solicit comments on that as well. I don't think
> it would be too bad, though, to have an "external/internal"
> separation between one-bracket and two-bracket links if your idea
> has some technical problem I don't see right now.  That's pretty
> simple to understand an use.

The internal/external could be a point, but is [[de:<German phrase>]]
really an internal or external link?  And ISBN: is clearly an external
link, so should that be in single brackets?  I think the colon is what
marks an external link.  A separate namespace is as foreign as an
external website (or set of websites, as in the ISBN: case).

In my own wiki, I have been experimenting with various namespace:word
combinations as a shorthand for external links.  This always fails
when "word" needs to be a "phrase".  You need that closing bracket,
whether single or double.

PhpWiki (the software at http://phpwiki.sourceforge.net/) uses single
brackets for everything.  I don't know why UseModWiki started with
double brackets.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik
  Teknikringen 1e, SE-583 30 Linuxköping, Sweden
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  http://aronsson.se/ http://elektrosmog.nu/ http://susning.nu/