[wp-hackers] the_excerpt should have parameters

[R.J. Kaplan]

Hi,

I'd like to raise a suggestion, based on a lot of feedback I get from  
clients. the_excerpt() function currectly has no tags, but they're a  
few things that users usually want to control, and not possible.

1. the length of the excerpt. I know it can be controlled more  
effectively with the_content() and <!--more-->, but not everyone has  
the patience to do that with every post, all they want is a different  
length.

2. the [...] at the end. i've got loads of requests to remove or  
change it. having that as a parameter in the_excerpt() could be  
really helpful.

3. the_excerpt() strips the html tags out of the post. now, this  
gives the desiarable affect %95 of the time, and I understand that  
it's done to prevent validation errors (though it's not done when the  
post is cut in half with <!--more-->) but sometimes, like when  
someone post a video from youtube and wants it to show in the  
excerpt, it might be useful to be able to change this setting.

~Rubin