On Thursday 17 August 2006 19:29, Derek Wright wrote:
i don't have a concrete proposal, but, since dries is fishing for "zeitgeist", i just wanted to register my unease (not dissatisfaction).
thanks, -dww
Personally, I think this is an issue best handled by the oft-discussed but not-yet-implemented golden/recommended/endorsed/first class citizen contrib concept. 1) Drupal, to be really useful, relies on various contrib modules. 2) Not all contrib modules are really major or widely used. Those that are probably number two dozen or so (not counting those already in core). We can debate about which those are, but let's ignore that question for the moment and simply agree that some modules are more important to the general masses than others. 3) It is imperative that those "top tier" modules work with a given Drupal version for Drupal to reach its full potential in any given version. So: 4) The freeze period of a release is the time to update those "special" modules. Drupal Core doesn't actually get tagged for a new release until all (or some significant majority) of those special modules are upgraded to work with it. CCK (to use an example for argument's sake) not working with a beta release is a critical bug itself on the Drupal ecosystem and should be treated accordingly. This concept has been discussed on and off for as long as I've been around Drupaldom (which is now a year and a fraction), but if any work has been done on it I am not aware of it. "Code is gold" and all of that, but this is really as much an infrastructure issue as it is a code issue. That makes it hard for we code monkeys to really help out with it, without clear direction from the de facto powers that be. We've discussed before that Drupal has no formal roadmap, and I'm not going to challenge that process. However, trolling through the devel list and issues subscription (I'm a sucker for lots of email), one does get the impression that there is an informal feeling that a given release has one or two really key goals of "let's make this RIGHT this time!" For 4.7, it was FAPI. For whatever this version is called, it's frankly the install system. I propose that we address the "first class modules" question in the next release, and make that the informal rallying point. Not being in infrastructure person I don't know what I can offer to that effort other than kibbitzing, but I am open to suggestions. :-) There's a lot that needs to be hashed out concept-wise for that, but for Drupal's exponential growth to continue, The two-tier system we have now simply must expand and become more robust. I believe that would solve, at least to a large extent, several of Drupal's current management growing pains, including those mentioned in this thread. -- Larry Garfield AIM: LOLG42 larry@garfieldtech.com ICQ: 6817012 "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it." -- Thomas Jefferson