It's a parctice that dates back to 2006 when the API was first written, and frankly isn't covered by the coding conventions. Same thing with the docblocks, they're all copypasted with some bits changed and don't even make sense if you look at them in the genereated code docs.
I don't feel that any of us depend on this anymore (get a better IDE), so in the inerest of consistancy it's time we said goodbye to it.
Normalised api user right checking to that of SpecialImport, by moving permission checks into specified code paths
Some documentation and explicit variables added while inspecting other code
* Full rewrite of the WikiImporter class to a new class, XMLDumpImporter, which uses XMLReader instead of the deprecated PHP SAX interface.
* Fixes for the following bugs:
** XML Dump Processor chokes on unrecognised tags.
** Special:Import does not allow you to import a dump including only log entries.
* Added hooks to allow extensions to handle tags in any part of the XML document.
* Fully source-compatible with the previous interface.
Move token requringness check to the ApiMain
Adding an exception if we're using "gettoken" (block/unblock)
Remove array( 'missingparam', 'token' ), from the getPossibleErrors of modules that set requireToken method to true
"I wouldn't object to stylizing the API code to bring it in line with
the rest of MW on principle, but I'm not gonna bother myself." --Roan
<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Code/MediaWiki/60657#c5108>
If you're seeing this commit in blames, tell your blame tool to ignore
whitespace, e.g., git blame -w or svn blame -x -w.
* Instead of hiding read-restricted modules, throw an error when a user without read rights tries to use them
* Do the same for write modules when $wgEnableWriteAPI is false
* Indicate whether a module needs read or write rights in action=help and action=paraminfo
* BREAKING CHANGE: action=purge now requires write rights and, for anonymous users, a POST request
* Aggressively intval() numeric things; addresses the concerns raised on bug 11633
* Use ApiQueryBase::addTitleInfo() everywhere
* Remove a drug-induced-looking line from ApiQueryWatchlist.php
