User:Dantman/Skinning system/Link lists rewrite

Current link structure
This is our current structure for tools links:
 * personal_tools
 * userpage
 * mytalk
 * preferences
 * watchlist
 * mycontribs
 * logout
 * anonuserpage
 * anontalk
 * anonlogin
 * login
 * createaccount
 * content_navigation / actions
 * namespaces
 * subject
 * talk
 * special
 * views
 * view
 * edit
 * addsection
 * viewsource
 * history
 * actions
 * delete
 * move
 * protect
 * unprotect
 * undelete
 * watch
 * unwatch
 * variants
 * toolbox
 * whatlinkshere
 * trackbacklink
 * feeds
 * contributions
 * log
 * blockip
 * emailuser
 * upload
 * specialpages
 * print
 * permalink
 * ispermalink
 * ispermalink

Proposed link structure
This is an alternative idea. Instead of grouped by ui element, we group things by context. Then instead of these themselves being ui elements, we have a tools definition that defines ui elements and notes what links go where then outputs those ui elements into the skin.
 * user (links relevant to who is logged in)
 * links
 * userpage
 * talk
 * tools
 * preferences
 * watchlist
 * contribs
 * actions
 * logout
 * login
 * createaccount
 * page (links relevant to what page is being viewed)
 * namespaces
 * subject
 * talk
 * special
 * views
 * view
 * edit
 * addsection
 * viewsource
 * history
 * actions
 * delete
 * move
 * protect
 * unprotect
 * undelete
 * watch
 * unwatch
 * links
 * whatlinkshere
 * recentchangeslinked
 * print
 * permalink
 * ispermalink
 * feeds (~Do feeds need a separate feature?)
 * user
 * contributions
 * log
 * blockip
 * emailuser
 * related (links on or off site to things with some relation to the current page)
 * variants (variants of the current page in different scripts, etc...)
 * languages (other language versions of the same page)
 * ... (extensions can define other types of relations, such as version relations for software documentation, sister wiki links, etc...)
 * global (links relevant to the entire site)
 * specialpages
 * upload
 * global (links relevant to the entire site)
 * specialpages
 * upload

Comments
In addition to tools we will likely incorporate 'related' links into this structure (see ../Customization). The only default list being.

The syntax likely goes something like:
 * UI element names are marked inside []'s.
 * Each item starting with * notes where a series of links should go.
 * An item that points to a link inserts that link, and item that points to an array inserts that array. While the foo.* syntax matches everything with that pattern. ie: user.* where user.talk, etc... are links will insert all the links on the same level, while page.* where page.namespaces, etc... are arrays will insert a 'namespaces' arrayed key, etc...
 * The system parses the whole thing and distributes links in a weighted system. eg: If you have user.* in one area, and user.userpage in another, then user.userpage will go to the spot that defined user.userpage, while every other link inside user will go to where user.* was defined.
 * Rather than * a line can also start with - or +. Using + will add an item separately from the weighted * system (ie: Using '+ user.userpage' will add a userpage link while leaving user.userpage to go wherever it fits in the weighted system meaning that user.userpage exists in two separate lists as duplicates). Using - will eliminate a link from a list in such a way that unless you explicitly + it the link will not show up in any list (If you want to remove a link from a list and have it elsewhere you should use the weighted * system for that).
 * An 'as' syntax is also supported. 'page.namespaces as foo' will add the page.namespaces array using the key 'foo' instead of 'namespaces'.
 * Using x.** rather than x.* will do a recursive match that will flatten any hierarchy and create a flat list of links.
 * A tool map should consider containing a * or ** somewhere in the definition that will take new features we add into account. The latter will of course flatten it to a single list of links instead of making it a hierarchy.

Vector Map: [personal_links] [content_navigation] [related] [toolbox]
 * user.*.*
 * page.namespaces
 * views:
 * page.views.*
 * page.actions.watch
 * page.actions.unwatch
 * page.actions
 * related.variants
 * related.*
 * page.*.*
 * global.*

MonoBook Map [personal_links] [content_actions] - page.views.view [related] [toolbox] Note how MonoBook uses - to erase the redundant view link.
 * user.*.*
 * page.namespaces.*
 * page.views.*
 * page.actions.*
 * related.variants.*
 * related.*
 * page.*.*
 * global.*

Also note the [related] section. A " " would be more recognizable, but [related] would ideally replace that and be used by the sidebar widget to create boxes like language_urls for other types of relations.