On 12/22/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Earnie Boyd</b> <<a href="mailto:earnie@users.sourceforge.net">earnie@users.sourceforge.net</a>> wrote:<div><span class="gmail_quote"></span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Quoting Gabor Hojtsy <<a href="mailto:gabor@hojtsy.hu">gabor@hojtsy.hu</a>>:<br><br>> On Thu, 21 Dec 2006, Earnie Boyd wrote:<br>>> <quote>If your module comes with other modules or is meant to be<br>
>> used exclusively with other modules, enter the name of the package<br>>> here.</quote> Hmm... It uses Taxonomy ... Hmm... That must be the<br>>> package string value I should use for my package.
<br>><br>> Earnie, "package" and "module" are not the same things.<br><br>That really depends on which definition you use for package and which<br>one you use for module. I think this definition for product from IBM
<br>as found using define:product on Google fits well: "An installable unit<br>of a software product. Software product packages are separately<br>installable units that can operate independently from other packages of
<br>that software product." For module I find "A program unit that is<br>discrete and identifiable with respect to compiling, combining with<br>other units, and loading." Since package and module both resolve to a
<br>unit of software I think of them as synonymous.</blockquote><div><br>Earnie<br><br>Names are people make them mean. If the general public uses hacker for<br>what the tech community term cracker, and that catches on, then so be it,
<br>despite the protests of the minority (the tech community).<br> </div><br>In the Drupal universe, module has a very specific meaning. It means a file<br>called something.module, living in the modules directory or the sites/something/
<br>modules directory, and optionally a .install file (and as of 5.0, has its own directory, <br>and a .info file).<br><br>It is too late to rename module, since that is what it meant and that is what it <br>will continue to mean.
<br><br>Module has other meanings in other parts of the industry, but that is irrelevant<br>to us in the Drupal world.<br><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
> Package is a module suite, in which the modules are usually<br>> architected to work closely together (like the links package,<br>> ecommerce, the erp module suite, etc). Core modules are not forming<br>> module suites with contrib modules. Contrib modules themselfs can
<br>> form module suites. You won't have taxonomy module listed with other<br>> taxonomy related modules in your module list for sure. There is no<br>> taxonomy module suite (package).<br>><br><br>The definition for package Drupal needs to promote is one as found in
<br>the same Google search I mentioned above: "A package is a collection of<br>modules related by authorship, maintenance, or distribution."</blockquote><div><br>Personally, I never liked the name "install profile" because it somewhat clashes
<br>with the "profile module" that has specific fields for the users. It will confuse <br>users.<br><br>I prefer to term them "packages", but I think Adrian is working on a broader<br>definition of package a la Debian way. (Hey Adrian, jump in and correct me
<br>if I am wrong here).<br><br>If the name "package" is not reserved for some future thingie, then I am all <br>for renaming install profiles, although it may be too late to do so.<br><br></div></div>