Rationale: put formatting rules in an editable topic (let call it WebPatterns? and TWikiPatterns? )

Implementation:

• at plugin initialization:
  • collect all patterns from the topics (first TWikiPatterns? , then WebPatterns? )
  • avoid overriding patterns ( a' la FINALPREFERENCES )
  • compile them as pattern variables
  • if needed, for the efficiency-concerned, compile at runtime a subroutine that does all replacements
• Instantiate a Safe container (see the Safe CPAN module) enabling some TWiki functions and vars:
  • &internalLink(), %handleIncludeFile() ...
  • $web, $topic, $username ...
• in the outsidePreHandler apply (eval) the replacements inside the Safe container

Desirable side effects:

• if the pattern specification is verbose enough we obtain automagically its documentation

Examples:

• Double underscore -> bold italic
  • Pattern BoldItalicPattern? = /(\s|^)__(.*)__([\s\.\,\?\!]|$)/$1$2$3/go
• Old syntax of INCLUDE tag:
  • Pattern OldIncludePattern? = /%INCLUDE:"([^%\"]*?)"%/&handleIncludeFile( $1, $topic, $web, $user )/geo

• Set FINALPATTERNS = BoldItalicPattern? , OldIncludePattern?

PS: I have used WikiNames? for patterns so that we can document their syntax and examples

-- AndreaSterbini - 20 Feb 2001

I'm almost done with a dumb version of the above idea, you can just define patterns with the syntax

• Replace <pattern> with <replacement>

• the pattern is a normal regexp
• the replacement is just a string where the symbols $1 .. $9 are replaced with the corresponding matching parts in the pattern.

-- AndreaSterbini - 21 Mar 2001