* 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.
Three reasons for this:
1) It's better for analysis tools [which want explicit variable declaration]
2) It's easier for a human to read, as it's completely explicit where the variables came from [which is something you don't get with extract() ]
3) It makes it easier to find everywhere where a variable is used with search/grep [which you can't currently do with $tbl_page variables from things like: "extract($db->tableNames( 'page', 'revision'), EXTR_PREFIX_ALL, 'tbl');"].
Otherwise, from a functionality/efficiency perspective the two forms should be identical.
By doing this have been able run static analysis over the usages of these variables, thus eliminating 5 unneeded table names from calls, plus removing 3 unused calls entirely, and it just feels subjectively slightly nicer to me.
* 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.
* fix page history with table prefix
* fix paging on history
* switch 'earliest' and 'latest' link order to fix 'prev' and 'next'
* use null where appropriate
* switch some messages to plaintext or wikitext
dealing with moves and deletes of widely-linked pages.
The updaters should be fixed up to understand future versions without the
tables there without breaking upgrades.
Special:Recentchangeslinked and Special:Emailuser all mishandled being passed
"0" with the Special:Page/0 syntax (unrelated to bug 2087), this either
required a workaround in the form of passing "0" as a GET value or blocked
the user from passing that value at all.
