# New Lua templates bring faster, more flexible pages to your wiki

<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/lua-templates-faster-more-flexible-pages/>

- Host: [blog.wikimedia.org](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/blog.wikimedia.org/)
- Saved: March 11, 2013 (2013-03-11T19:03:10Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/2417cc541fbe/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/2417cc541fbe.json

## From the page (probably an excerpt, not Jamie's words)

MediaWiki developers introduced templates and parser functions years ago to allow end-users of MediaWiki to replicate content easily and build tools using basic logic. Along the way, we found that we were turning wikitext into a limited programming language. Complex templates have caused performance issues and bottlenecks, and its difficult for users to write and understand templates. Therefore, the Lua scripting project aims to make it possible for MediaWiki end-users to use a proper scripting language that will be more powerful and efficient than ad-hoc, parser functions-based logic. The example of Luas use in World of Warcraft is promising; even novices with no programming experience have been able to make large changes to their graphical experiences by quickly learning some Lua.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Same host

- [What Lua scripting means for Wikimedia and open source](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/7a7a0c71dd8a/) (blog.wikimedia.org, March 14, 2013)
- [The Wikidata revolution is here: enabling structured data on Wikipedia Wikimedia blog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/1f05757e5239/) (blog.wikimedia.org, April 25, 2013)
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## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/lua-templates-faster-more-flexible-pages/