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.
Since all those used ApiQueryBase::addWhereRange, added ApiQueryBase::addTimestampWhereRange, which does automagic timestamp conversion. Not tested whether this actually fixes problems in Postgres, but at least the API modules are still functional in SQLite
* Introduced a "cache mode" concept to simplify the header generation code, and to avoid odd results when conflicting cache header requests are received from submodules, or at least to formalise the handling of such cases.
* Made the cache mode private by default, so that code written in ignorance of caching tends to be safe. If different query modules are used in a single request, private caching is preferred over public caching.
* Removed the "must-revalidate" option from all CC headers, this is really specific to page views with a hacked squid in front, I don't think it's applicable here.
* Made the watchlist module private. This is really the definition of private data. There's nothing in the HTTP spec that says the URL for a CC:public request is private and can't be leaked. CC:private provides protection against unknown proxy behaviour.
* In ApiQueryAllmessages: avoid calling $wgLang->getCode() to check if it's necessary to make a new $wgLang when lang= is specified, since this is the only thing that unstubs $wgUser.
* Removed "FIXME: should this check $user instead of $wgUser?" Answer is no.
"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>
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