Perfect timing since we are having a Lua focused meetup Thursday evening!
Emily Blanchard Talent Acquisition Team Wikimedia Foundation eblanchard@wikimedia. <[email protected]>org http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home Become a Contributor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teahouse Join Us: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Work_with_us On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 11:38 AM, Guillaume Paumier <[email protected]>wrote: > Greetings, > > As you might have seen on the Wikimedia tech > blog< > https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/lua-templates-faster-more-flexible-pages/ > >(article > included below) or the tech > ambassadors list< > http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-ambassadors/2013-March/000171.html > >, > a new functionality called "Lua" is being enabled on all Wikimedia sites > today. Lua <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lua> is a scripting language > that enables Wikimedia editors to write faster and more powerful MediaWiki > templates. > > If you have questions about how to convert existing templates to Lua (or > how to create new ones), we'll be holding two support sessions on IRC next > week: one on Wednesday< > http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=02&min=00&sec=0&day=20&month=03&year=2013 > >(for > Oceania, Asia & America) and one > on Friday< > http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=18&min=00&sec=0&day=22&month=03&year=2013 > >(for > Europe, Africa & America); see m:IRC > office hours <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours> for > details. If you can't make it, you can also get help at mw:Talk:Lua > scripting <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Lua_scripting>. > > If you'd like to learn about this kind of events earlier in advance, > consider becoming a Tech > ambassador<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/Ambassadors>by > subscribing to the mailing > list <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-ambassadors>. > > > ================================= > > New Lua templates bring faster, more flexible pages to your > wiki< > https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/lua-templates-faster-more-flexible-pages/ > > > Posted by Sumana Harihareswara > <https://blog.wikimedia.org/author/sumanah/>on March 11th, 2013 > > Starting Wednesday, March 13th, you’ll be able to make wiki pages even more > useful, no matter what language you speak: we’re adding > Lua<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lua_%28programming_language%29>as a > templating language. This will make it easier for you to create and > change infoboxes, tables, and other useful MediaWiki templates. We’ve > already started to deploy > Scribunto<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Scribunto>(the > MediaWiki extension that enables this); it’s on several of the sites, > including > English Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lua>, right > now. > > You’ll find this useful for performing more complex tasks for which > templates are too complex or slow *—* common examples include numeric > computations, string manipulation and parsing, and decision trees. Even if > you don’t write templates, you’ll enjoy seeing pages load faster and with > more interesting ways to present information. > Background > > MediaWiki developers introduced templates and parser > functions<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ParserFunctions>years > ago to allow end-users of MediaWiki to replicate content easily and > build tools using basic logic. Along the way, we found that we were turning > wikitext into a limited programming language. Complex templates have caused > performance issues and bottlenecks, and it’s difficult for users to write > and understand templates. Therefore, the Lua scripting > project<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lua_scripting>aims to make it > possible for MediaWiki end-users to use a proper scripting > language that will be more powerful and efficient than ad-hoc, parser > functions-based logic. The example of Lua’s use in World of > Warcraft<http://www.wowwiki.com/Lua>is promising; even novices with no > programming experience have been able to > make large changes to their graphical experiences by quickly learning some > Lua. > Lua on your wiki > > As of March 13th, you’ll be able to use Lua on your home wiki (if it’s not > already enabled). Lua code can be embedded into wiki templates by employing > the {{#invoke:}} parser function provided by the Scribunto MediaWiki > extension. The Lua source code is stored in pages called modules (e.g., > Module:Bananas <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module:Bananas>). These > individual modules are then invoked on template pages. The example: > Template:Lua > hello world <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Lua_hello_world> uses > the code {{#invoke:Bananas|hello}} to print the text “Hello, world!”. So, > if you start seeing edits in the Module namespace, that’s what’s going on. > Getting started > > Check out the basic “hello, world!” > instructions< > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Scribunto/Lua_reference_manual#Getting_started > >, > then look at Brad Jorsch’s short > presentation< > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WMF_Tech_Talk_2013-02-28_slides_-_Scribunto_presentation.pdf > >for > a basic example of how to convert a wikitext template into a Lua > module. After that, try Tim Starling’s > tutorial<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lua_scripting/Tutorial> > . > > To help you preview and test a converted template, try > Special:TemplateSandbox< > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:TemplateSandbox>on > your wiki. With it, you can preview a page using sandboxed versions of > templates and modules, allowing for easy testing before you make the > sandbox code live. > > Where to start? If you use pywikipedia, try parsercountfunction.py by > Bináris< > https://svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/pywikipedia/trunk/pywikipedia/parserfunctioncount.py > >, > which helps you find wikitext templates that currently parse slowly and > thus would be worth converting to Lua. Try fulfilling open requests for > conversion on English > Wikipedia<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lua_requests>, > possibly using Anomie’s Greasemonkey > script< > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Anomie/PP-report-Greasemonkey-script>to > help you see the performance gains. On English Wikipedia, some > of the templates have already been > converted< > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Lua_talk> > *—* feel free to reuse them on your wiki. > > The Lua hub on mediawiki.org <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Lua> has more > information; please add to it. And enjoy your faster, more flexible > templates! > > *Sumana Harihareswara, Engineering Community Manager* > ================================= > > > -- > Guillaume Paumier > Technical Communications Manager — Wikimedia Foundation > https://donate.wikimedia.org > > _______________________________________________ > Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately > directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia > community. 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