On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Brian <brian.min...@colorado.edu> wrote:
> > > On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 1:49 PM, Roan Kattouw <roan.katt...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> 2009/9/25 Brian <brian.min...@colorado.edu>: >> > Also, I am quite serious about my point that an entirely >> > new language interface specification will be added to MediaWiki and that >> it >> > will be widely adopted and propagate throughout the wikisphere, much >> like >> > parser functions, and in the end will make the job of fixing MediaWiki >> much, >> > much harder. >> Whatever wikitext ends up becoming, it will probably still have >> templates in some form. If the XML language is designed properly, it >> won't make any assumptions about the current state of wikitext and >> templates, other than that: >> >> * there are such things as templates >> * they accept parameters >> * parameters can, but need not, have names, types, descriptions, etc.; >> types may or may not be enforced >> >> This very limited set of assumptions will hold in any language that >> implements templates in a remotely sane way. >> >> > From what I have >> > heard, there was a meeting about how to solve this problem among core >> devs >> > and a few others at wikimedia headquarters, they decided what the >> solution >> > would be >> That's news to me; I'd very much like to hear from these people what >> their proposed solution is. >> >> > , and now you guys are moving forward on implementing it, totally >> > ignoring the strategy wiki. >> You make it sound like we're just going ahead and doing this, totally >> ignoring everyone else's opinions. Instead, we're proposing and >> discussing it on this list to get input from other people. If you >> think there's a more appropriate place to discuss this, just point us >> there; don't go around blasting us because we failed to read your >> mind. >> >> Roan Kattouw (Catrope) > > > > It appears that there is a desire for this project to fit within the scope of > the Usability Initiative, which to me says that there is a strong desire to > implement it starting soon. Trevor's e-mail indicates as much - let's stop > talking strategy and start designing so we can implement. > > I believe there was a meeting at headquarters with Brion, Trevor, Yaron, > and maybe others. I don't know, I wasn't there. All I know is that at this > meeting they decided that they would implement this feature. The XML aspect > is honestly immaterial to me - it's just an implementational detail, the > decision to do this having been decided entirely off wiki. > > I am not here saying that it is a bad feature, not a bit. In fact I have > previously advocated on this list for the ability for users to specify > form-like interfaces. What I am saying is that I think it's premature. There > is a tradeoff that needs to be balanced here. It's easy to add new features > and hard to fix the old one. As we add new features however we diverse > farther and farther from the possibility of fixing wikitext. This is > especially when efforts to add new features are done entirely out of the > context of a clear strategy for eventually fixing wikitext. > > So before a feature such as this is implemented, or any new substantial > language is added to MediaWiki (such as ParserFunctions, or this interface > specification language), I would like to see work done on the Strategy wiki. > I don't think new work such as this should be done outside of the context of > a very clear vision of how we will eventually fix the whole problem. And I'm > entirely willing to help. > > Sorry for my typos: one -> ones, diverse -> diverge. _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
