[pmwiki-users] variables for customization

Jonathan Scott Duff duff at pobox.com
Wed Jul 6 20:10:26 CDT 2005


On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 05:31:18PM -0500, Patrick R. Michaud wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 11:54:49PM +0200, Joachim Durchholz wrote:
> > And, on a tangent:
> > 3) Please make $Groupname, $Pagename, and $Fullname available in 
> > config.php. These values are simply too helpful to be omitted. (Yes I 
> > know they can be inferred from $pagename, but that's not what the 
> > average PmWiki admin will want to do.)
> 
> No, no, no, because it will completely increase the confusion about the
> substitutions taking place.  $Group, $Title, $FullName, $Name, $PageUrl,
> are *not* tied to the current page being displayed, they're used for
> whatever page name is being referenced, be it in a link to another page,
> the title of a referenced page, etc.
> 
> > Agreeing with everything except terminology.
> > I'd prefer "placeholder" over "variable" or "markup" - "variable", while 
> > technically not as out-of-the-question as you make it out, would provoke 
> > misunderstandings, and "markup" is definitely something else.
> 
> "Placeholder" is fine with me, but they really are markup.

It's a shame they look so much like PHP variables then.  It tends to
trigger that particular pattern in PHP programmer's heads and thus
lead to confusion for some.  

Calling them placeholders makes me want to see "?Group", "?Fullname",
etc. (Or some sigil other than $). I just chose ? because of the
association with placeholders in DBI.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone thinks it's too late in the game for
such a change, but I think we should at least consider it. 

-Scott
-- 
Jonathan Scott Duff
duff at pobox.com



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