Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Template namespace (section)

== History ==
Historically, an "msg:" prefix had to be added in front of the template name when it was used on a page. For example, <nowiki>{{msg:stub}} was typed instead of {{stub}}</nowiki>. This is no longer necessary. 

In Wikipedia's first 35 months, there was no template or transclusion mechanism at all. The page [[Wikipedia:Boilerplate text]] was created in September 2002 to collect frequently used text in various Wikipedia processes. The [[Help:MediaWiki namespace|MediaWiki namespace]] was introduced with MediaWiki 1.2.6 on December 6, 2003, and was used not only for the user interface but also for creating boilerplate text messages to be inserted in articles using the <nowiki>{{msg:&nbsp;...}}</nowiki> syntax. This function was replaced with the [[Wikipedia:Template namespace|Template namespace]] during the software upgrade to MediaWiki 1.3 on May 30, 2004. As a function of the "[[User:Template namespace initialisation script|Template namespace initialisation script]]", all non-system messages were moved to the new namespace. The initialisation script also replaced MediaWiki: references in articles with Template: to bypass the redirects created by the moves.

For a short time, [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion]] (then known as ''votes for deletion'' or ''VfD'') used MediaWiki: messages named in the format "MediaWiki:VfD-''articlename''". These were moved to the Template: space in June 2004 and were named "Template:VfD-''articlename''". This usage is deprecated now in favor of subpages.

Around 2005, growing complexity of template functions and the desire to consolidate similar templates led to the creation of extremely complex conditional hacks such as [[Wikipedia:Avoid using meta-templates|nested templates]] and [[Wikipedia:HiddenStructure|CSS tricks]]. These undesirable methods led to the development of [[m:Extension:ParserFunctions]], added in 2006 with MediaWiki 1.7. By 2009, many problems with template readability and complexity still remained (''[https://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/06/30/on-templates-and-programming-languages/ On templates and programming languages]''). In 2013, in order to address page load times, mostly due to slow template renders, [[Wikipedia:Lua|Lua]] was enabled, creating a Module: namespace for programmers to make use of (''[https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/03/11/lua-templates-faster-more-flexible-pages/ New Lua templates bring faster, more flexible pages to your wiki]'').