On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 1:31 PM, Greg L Greg_L_at_Wikipedia@comcast.netwrote:
I'm not a developer so it would be great if either of you (Aryeh or Mr.Z-man) could explain whether a character-counting parser function (or similar tool) is currently available (or could be made) for template authors to use. As for "we currently have no plans to enable StringFunctions or any similar functionality on Wikimedia sites", why would that be a good plan? If it makes sense to Jimbo to have character-counting a parser function, and to several template authors, and to some editors who rely upon templates that could benefit from such tools, then what is wrong a character-counting parser function? Or is there something particular about "StringFunctions" that goes beyond the straight and narrow requirements of the character-counting parser function as required to implement {val} and {delimitnum}?
BTW: Has anyone looked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_(dates_and_numbe...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_%28dates_and_numbers%29/Archive_94#Grouping_of_digits_after_the_decimal_point_.28next_attempt.29
The functionality required is explained there.
Greg L
Brion outlined his concerns with StringFunctions--when it was merged with ParserFunctions and he reverted it--back in r39653. Mainly, the overall package is too memory intensive as currently written.
-Chad