Hi, I disagree with the removal of the sandbox. I use this a lot for pre-alpha code. and also to share custom modules that I know other people are wanting to get and use, but I am not willing to create a new project to yet. Generally this is because there is too much site specific client stuff that I need to remove. In the past I have also commit other modules like the image module where I have made a lot of changes and these were then taken later by other people and incorporated back into the main module. Laterly I have been using my sandbox as a place to share the new invoice module for E-Commerce. I have been able to run this module in a lot of different places, and not have to fully support it. It is not in the HEAD of ecommerce and I was able to shake out a lot of the bugs because of the sandbox. Other uses that I and other people s to share modules that I have written. But as yet, I do not want to do a full release. I agree that the sandbox needs to only contain Drupal related content, but I do feel that it is a great place to share very early code which is not ready to become a full project with all the other stuff that follows that. Please don't remove the sandboxes as I find them an valuable resource in developing new code for Drupal. Gordon. Kjartan Mannes wrote:
Greetings,
Originally the Sandbox was created as a place to put core patches that were pending review, as we did not have any issue tracker back then. Since then the project module has grown and can now cover most of the original purpose of the sandboxes. Since then sandboxes have been used for many original uses, some that are good and some that aren't so good. The good stuff are what the sandboxes were originally intended for, large or very experimental Core changes that weren't ready for a proper issue. The bad stuff is people using it as a place to store modules and themes, this has always been a bad idea as you loose out the option of using issues tracker, versions, and they are rarely included in searches for any new wide spread security vulnerabilities.
Since sandboxes still have some limited use we aren't completely getting rid of it, but it will be cleaned up. To make this happen we have made the current sandbox directory read-only, and only approved people can commit new files and changes. All the current data in the sandboxes will remain there until January 15, 2007. Sandboxes who have had people request write access, and had this granted will remain and all the rest will be archived and moved out of the repository. To request access file an issue against the infrastructure tracker (http://drupal.org/node/add/project_issue/drupal_org_maintenance) it will then be handled. I'm pretty sure the CVS administrators will be lenient with regards to what is considered core patches and experimental stuff, but I doubt we will approve people using the sandboxes as a place to host mp3 collections, non-Drupal projects or even whole websites.
Modules and themes that are in active use and/or development will be moved to the proper location upon request, this will preserve the CVS history whereas re-committing them to the right place will loose the history. Please file an issue on the infrastructure tracker for this: http://drupal.org/node/add/project_issue/drupal_org_maintenance.
I know some people will be unhappy with these changes, but having thousands of files randomly stored in the CVS repos doesn't add value most of the time. We definitely want to help provide the tools for cool Drupal developments, but it will happen under slightly more orderly rules than the current wild mess.