I agree with this post, but also understand that there are times when this is not possible. I read enough of the panels thread to understand that there were some changes in the menu system that made porting Panels 2 in a feature complete way to D6 significantly difficult, and I want to acknowledge that this is a reality that maintainers must live with when frameworks change (which I continue to believe is a good thing). Dave On Apr 21, 2009, at 7:20 AM, Earnie Boyd wrote:
Quoting David Metzler <metzlerd@metzlerd.com>:
I think think the right answer about drupal stagnating was really about having Views, Panels, and WYSIWG api all going through major refactoring on D6, all lagging significantly the D6 release. I know it's why I'm not using my own D6 ported modules in any production sites yet.
And to avoid this the module developer needs to agree to port the existing functionality of a module from one version to the next while the new features of the module are being developed. The deadwood and coder modules can help with that and should be one of the first modules upgraded out of the door. New functionality in a module is great but once a Drupal version is out and people are knocking on the modules door for "when is Dx going to be supported" carrying over the old functionality to the new Dx should have a priority over a more powerful, better looking model. D6 still lags because modules are improving their API and developers aren't willing to put out a module that is carries the sins of the older D5 version. A worthy goal but so is getting a module that is working just like the previous. This is really a sore sticking point making using Drupal sour in some eyes.
I agree that Drupal has a nice feature rich framework for building many different applications (modules). I agree that the CMS work is what has drawn many to Drupal. However, a focus on CMS often drowns the other usefulness of the framework and you have a situation similar to HORDE/IMP. Does anyone think framework when they hear HORDE? Maybe as a second thought but usually you think an email client. Unfortunately when people here Drupal they think CMS and not framework. Most users of the CMS don't care that the framework of Drupal or the framework of their favorite module is now more feature rich at first. They care that their sites will work exactly the same as it does before upgrading. Then they might look at the newer features.
There are more users of Drupal than there are hackers providing code, peer reviews and module functionality. Yes, these are important but not to the non-technical user of the product. People are tired of waiting on module maintainers and probably will go elsewhere or worse create their own version of the module. This is why it is important for contrib modules to be readily available within a month of a new Dx release.
-- Earnie -- http://r-feed.com/ -- http://for-my-kids.com/ -- http://www.4offer.biz/ -- http://give-me-an-offer.com/