[consulting] Feedback on gold stars for Drupal Contrib modules

[Dries Buytaert]

On 25 May 2007, at 08:43, sime wrote:
> I like the ideas. The only thing I missed when I read your article was
> an acknowledgement of the SoC project that aims to improve the  
> metrics:
> http://code.google.com/soc/drupal/appinfo.html?csaid=3A264F10AC34134E

I think the Google SoC project would be more valuable for end-users.

Boris' suggestion certainly has merit but it seems to quantify the  
developer -- and in specific, how well the developer's methodologies  
match what is considered to be the current best practice.  The system  
penalizes other (emerging or established) development methodologies  
that produce equally good code.

In other words, it is an interesting idea, but it might not be the  
best system to rate the quality of the result (i.e. the final theme  
or module). A specific methodology does not guarantee a good product,  
and a good product doesn't imply a specific methodology.

Nonetheless, I think this is something that needs to be communicated  
on the project pages.  Not as a 'gold star' but in plain text:

   * This project has 2 co-maintainers.
   * This project has 42 tests; 2 of them currently fail.
   * This project confirms to the coding standards.

See http://buytaert.net/temporary/project-information-at-a-glance.png  
for a two year old suggestion.  Boris's metrics would complement  
these earlier suggestions rather well.

--
Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/