Format issues under the PHP script

This is not a bug discussion, rather a list of new style features under the PHP script, of UseModWiki features that are not supported under the script, the reasons for that, and a discussion.

New and intentionally changed features

Automatic heading numbering

As you can see in the line above, headings now get a number. This is not a bug (as some might think on first glance), rather a new feature, which can be turned off on your user preferences page. The reason is that, now that the subpages are effectively gone, and with topics becoming more mature than stubs, articles will become longer. To structure long articles, headings and subheadings are very useful. But, as HTML goes, the headings are not very easy to tell apart (e.g., h3 vs. h4). The auto-numbering will detect the "highest" heading present (on this page, h2) and assign it with the main counter (1,2,3...). "Lower" headings get a sub-numbering (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, ... 2.1, 2.2, ...), and so on. This can be very helpful in longer articles (for an example, see [1]). Also, it can later be used in other ways:

• Show a "table of content" at the beginning of a long article.
• Make headings "jump points", to link to a specific location within an article (the "a name=..." tag).

These features are not implemented yet!

Ok, I relent. This sounds very useful. However, it does mean two things: 1) People are going to have to change some habits, and 2) It's going to make some of our current articles look screwy. Nothing that some copy editing can't handle, though! --Stephen G

Link extension

Foobar is [[foo]]bar in the source, but displayed like [[foo|foobar]]. Saves a lot of time;)

Paragraph justify

A setting on the user preferences page makes the text in wikipedia articles "justified", meaning it aligns on both left and right side. It is turned off by default to allow for maximum similarity with UseModWiki, but I (Magnus Manske) myself turned it on because I like it much better. The articles look more "professional" IMHO.

Variables

Variables that are replaced upon saving

Currently, only the ~ ~ ~ signature thing.

Variables that are replaced upon display

These are all enclosed in {{{ }}}. There are only a few so far:

• NUMBEROFARTICLES inserts an estimated number of articles.
• CURRENTMONTH inserts the current month as a number.
• CURRENTMONTHNAME inserts the current month as text.
• CURRENTDAY inserts the current day as a number.
• CURRENTDAYNAME inserts the current day as text.
• CURRENTYEAR inserts the current year.

These were originally intended for use on the Main Page (automated date change, article number update). Later, there can be variables to organize article categories, and automatic crosslinks to the same topic in other language wikis.

Removed or altered features

CamelCase is gone

It was ugly, wasn't it??

Subpages are gone

We had that discussion. You can still use and create pages that have a "/" in the title, though.

Missing parser functions

Some features from the UseModWiki parser do not work here, or work slightly differently. Personally, I (Magnus Manske) don't miss anything. Actually, the HTML generated by this script is more correct than the HTML from the UseModWiki (e.g., li tags now have a /li end tag). If you miss anything in particular that works in UseModWiki, please tell me what it is and why you like/want/need it. I aim for compatability, but if the parser is not 100% compatible with UseModWiki, who cares if the missing features are not used anyway?