* Convert "$dbw =& wfGetDB( DB_MASTER );" --> "$dbw = wfGetDB( DB_MASTER );"
* convert "$skin =& $wgUser->getSkin();" --> "$skin = $wgUser->getSkin();"
For the time being have not changed the function definitions of wfGetDB() or User::getSkin() [i.e. they are still both return-by-ref], so as to ensure the interface does not change for extensions [some of which may still be trying to run on PHP4 environments]. However presumably at some point this can be changed too.
Also includes tiny tweak to newlines in parserTests - will show 1 rather than 2 newlines between the "Reading tests from" strings when in quiet mode.
* removing some unused global declarations.
* removing or commenting out or adding comments for unused local vars.
* Adding one or two local var declarations.
* Declaring $matches array passed to preg_match() / preg_match_all() as array() before using [not required, just have a slight preference for the explicitness].
* remove one or two pass-by-reference function declarations where the value is not modified.
* Adding some braces to if-else blocks.
* In Parser.php, stripstrate is now an object rather than an array as per r17820, so we no longer need ask for a reference to it (as in "$x =& $this->mStripState;"), and in fact it's probably just simpler to get rid of $x altogether.
* Moving some preg regexes from "" quoting to '' quoting to stop static analyzer whinging about bad escape sequences.
... up to "LinksUpdate.php" in the includes/ directory.
* Removed some backtracking regexes with an O(N^2) worst case, replaced with StringUtils::delimiterReplace(). There is a beneficial functional difference: /*/ is no longer considered to be a complete CSS comment.
* Changed the parser strip state from an array to an object. This should hopefully avoid the PHP bugs with array references. StripState uses the new ReplacementArray to do the replacements, thereby supporting FSS.
* Removed DatabaseFunctions.php from the default startup sequence. Moved wfGetDB() to GlobalFunctions.php.
* Introduced the SiteStats class, with a collection of cached site stats accessor functions.
* Removed all global functions from Parser.php, they don't belong there.
* Made LanguageConverter use the new ReplacementArray class instead of managing its own FSS objects.
* DB_WRITE now called DB_MASTER, DB_READ now called DB_SLAVE
* Converted to use SQL wrapper functions instead of direct SQL in various places
* Experimental method for preserving the chronological order of events when slave servers are used. Untested.
* Fixes to the new post-parse existence test feature
* Some.. other stuff
* Misc. bugs fixed in DatabaseFunctions.php and Skin.php.
* install-utils, install and update utilise Database objects instead of handling their own connections
* schema change for RC improvement -- added rc_type, rc_moved_to_title and rc_moved_to_ns
