Initial draft of revised wiki syntax floated
A proposal was formulated last week to revise the markup used by the MediaWiki software, which could possibly also be promoted as a global standard for wiki projects. Considerable discussion followed and the project received a mostly positive reception.
Last Friday, developer Lee Daniel Crocker announced on the wikitech mailing list that he had completed a draft version of a new wiki syntax and solicited feedback about the project. The effort was spurred by a March suggestion from Jimmy Wales to develop a general syntax standard, potentially not just for Wikimedia Foundation projects but wikis in general (see archived story).
Some questions were raised and alternatives suggested to some aspects of the new syntax, but the feedback was generally positive and showed enough support to warrant continued work on the project. Wikimedia Chief Research Officer Erik Möller said, "this is an excellent proposal with a lot of potential."