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Is it theoretically possible to make all citations in Wikipedia automatically reformat on user preferences?
For example, for a user who really likes MLA and wants to see all citations in MLA, would such a user be able to set a preference and then the server formats the citations accordingly?
2 Answers
- NihiltresLv 61 decade agoFavorite Answer
In theory, it would be possible to create such a system. I'd do it by breaking down each citation into its constituent data, then rendering a given format in roughly the same procedural way that the usual templates do the job. It would take a bunch of work, but it's possible. I'd suggest that with a few modifications to some of those usual templates (marking available infomation with labeled span elements) it would be not to hard to do through client-side JavaScript.
In practice, it would take a lot more than that, since Wikipedia's citations aren't uniform by any means. When citations vary from the primitive bare URL a newbie might add to a well-marked-up "cite xyz" template, it's unrealistic to expect any automatic process to clean them *all* up. A larger reference-standardizing project would probably be necessary for a seriously useful formatting tool.
