On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 8:28 PM, Tim Starling <tstarl...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > I know that there is a camp of data reusers who like to write their > own parsers. I think there are more people who have written a wikitext > parser from scratch than have contributed even a small change to the > MediaWiki core parser. They have a lot of influence, because they go > to conferences and ask for things face-to-face. > > Now that we have HipHop support, we have the ability to turn > MediaWiki's core parser into a fast, reusable library. The performance > reasons for limiting the amount of abstraction in the core parser will > disappear. How many wikitext parsers does the world really need? >
People want to write their own parsers because they don't want to use PHP. They want to parse in C, Java, Ruby, Python, Perl, Assembly and every other language other than the one that it wasn't written in. There's this, IMHO, misplaced belief that "standardizing" the parser or markup would put us in a world of unicorns and rainbows where people can write their own parsers on a whim, just because they can. Other than "making it easier to integrate with my project," I don't see a need for them either (and tbh, the endless discussions grow tedious). I don't see any problem with keeping the parser in PHP, and as you point out with HipHop support on the not-too-distant horizon the complaints about performance with Zend will largely evaporate. -Chad _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
