Re: [development] lightbox module comparison
I think a 'module comparisons' section is important enough to deserve a top-level place in the handbook, with a link from the downloads page to make it easy for someone looking for modules to find. I actually think writeups like this are far more useful that the contrib module rating system that is often discussed. What does a 5 star rating tell you? It tells you the module solved a specific problem for the person who rated it, it doesn't tell you if it will solve *your* problem or be useful in *your* situation. But this kind of writeup makes it easy to see which module is the best fit for your particular situation, which is really really useful. This should not be buried down in the module documentation -- someone looking at one of the other modules would never see it. It should be very prominent (and that hopefully would also encourage other people to add more of these kinds of comparisons). For instance a good comparison of the different wysiwyg editors would be pretty useful :) Karen ----- Original Message ---- From: FGM <fgm@osinet.fr> To: development@drupal.org Sent: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 10:27:32 AM Subject: Re: [development] lightbox module comparison I've done one on the two glossary modules I'm aware of (glossary.module and g2.module), it's on the g2 project page. Maybe there are more, though ? This being said, you might have something: module duplication and module voting being recurrent themes, it might make sense to formalize a rule like: "if you're doing a module that resembles other modules, create a comparison page, that will go in the <to be determined> section of the handbook", in the dev manual. What do you think of it ? FGM
Agreed. A link from each module page to the comparison would be good a good addition. I'll add one for Shadowbox now. psynaptic http://freestylesystems.co.uk http://api.freestylesystems.co.uk On 4 Jun 2008, at 02:25, Karen Stevenson wrote:
I think a 'module comparisons' section is important enough to deserve a top-level place in the handbook, with a link from the downloads page to make it easy for someone looking for modules to find. I actually think writeups like this are far more useful that the contrib module rating system that is often discussed. What does a 5 star rating tell you? It tells you the module solved a specific problem for the person who rated it, it doesn't tell you if it will solve *your* problem or be useful in *your* situation. But this kind of writeup makes it easy to see which module is the best fit for your particular situation, which is really really useful.
This should not be buried down in the module documentation -- someone looking at one of the other modules would never see it. It should be very prominent (and that hopefully would also encourage other people to add more of these kinds of comparisons).
For instance a good comparison of the different wysiwyg editors would be pretty useful :)
Karen
----- Original Message ---- From: FGM <fgm@osinet.fr> To: development@drupal.org Sent: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 10:27:32 AM Subject: Re: [development] lightbox module comparison
I've done one on the two glossary modules I'm aware of (glossary.module and g2.module), it's on the g2 project page. Maybe there are more, though ?
This being said, you might have something: module duplication and module voting being recurrent themes, it might make sense to formalize a rule like: "if you're doing a module that resembles other modules, create a comparison page, that will go in the <to be determined> section of the handbook", in the dev manual.
What do you think of it ?
FGM
I added one to the lightbox2 module page too. On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 10:05 AM, Richard Burford < rich@freestylesystems.co.uk> wrote:
Agreed. A link from each module page to the comparison would be good a good addition. I'll add one for Shadowbox now.
psynaptic http://freestylesystems.co.uk http://api.freestylesystems.co.uk
On 4 Jun 2008, at 02:25, Karen Stevenson wrote:
I think a 'module comparisons' section is important enough to deserve a
top-level place in the handbook, with a link from the downloads page to make it easy for someone looking for modules to find. I actually think writeups like this are far more useful that the contrib module rating system that is often discussed. What does a 5 star rating tell you? It tells you the module solved a specific problem for the person who rated it, it doesn't tell you if it will solve *your* problem or be useful in *your* situation. But this kind of writeup makes it easy to see which module is the best fit for your particular situation, which is really really useful.
This should not be buried down in the module documentation -- someone looking at one of the other modules would never see it. It should be very prominent (and that hopefully would also encourage other people to add more of these kinds of comparisons).
For instance a good comparison of the different wysiwyg editors would be pretty useful :)
Karen
----- Original Message ---- From: FGM <fgm@osinet.fr> To: development@drupal.org Sent: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 10:27:32 AM Subject: Re: [development] lightbox module comparison
I've done one on the two glossary modules I'm aware of (glossary.module and g2.module), it's on the g2 project page. Maybe there are more, though ?
This being said, you might have something: module duplication and module voting being recurrent themes, it might make sense to formalize a rule like: "if you're doing a module that resembles other modules, create a comparison page, that will go in the <to be determined> section of the handbook", in the dev manual.
What do you think of it ?
FGM
I agree that these comparison pages are very valuable; no question. However, one problem with them is that they are also time-sensitive. I don't expect any of the modules mentioned to stand still. That means much of the data is going to become outdated; some in a month, some in 6 months. Are we also committing to keeping these pages up to date? Out of date/wrong documentation can be just as bad if not worse than no documentation at all. --Larry Garfield the killjoy On Wed, 4 Jun 2008 20:21:54 +0100, "Stella Power" <stella@stellapower.net> wrote:
I added one to the lightbox2 module page too.
On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 10:05 AM, Richard Burford < rich@freestylesystems.co.uk> wrote:
Agreed. A link from each module page to the comparison would be good a good addition. I'll add one for Shadowbox now.
psynaptic http://freestylesystems.co.uk http://api.freestylesystems.co.uk
On 4 Jun 2008, at 02:25, Karen Stevenson wrote:
I think a 'module comparisons' section is important enough to deserve a
top-level place in the handbook, with a link from the downloads page to make it easy for someone looking for modules to find. I actually think writeups like this are far more useful that the contrib module rating system that is often discussed. What does a 5 star rating tell you? It tells you the module solved a specific problem for the person who rated it, it doesn't tell you if it will solve *your* problem or be useful in *your* situation. But this kind of writeup makes it easy to see which module is the best fit for your particular situation, which is really really useful.
This should not be buried down in the module documentation -- someone looking at one of the other modules would never see it. It should be very prominent (and that hopefully would also encourage other people to add more of these kinds of comparisons).
For instance a good comparison of the different wysiwyg editors would be pretty useful :)
Karen
----- Original Message ---- From: FGM <fgm@osinet.fr> To: development@drupal.org Sent: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 10:27:32 AM Subject: Re: [development] lightbox module comparison
I've done one on the two glossary modules I'm aware of (glossary.module and g2.module), it's on the g2 project page. Maybe there are more, though ?
This being said, you might have something: module duplication and module voting being recurrent themes, it might make sense to formalize a rule like: "if you're doing a module that resembles other modules, create a comparison page, that will go in the <to be determined> section of the handbook", in the dev manual.
What do you think of it ?
FGM
Well I plan on keeping the lightbox comparison page up to date, hopefully with some updates from the individual module maintainers. It's also why I have a "Last Updated" bit at the top of the comparison, so people reading it can see exactly how recent it is. I also have a date beside each module in the first overview table to show when the info on that particular module was last updated. Cheers, Stella On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 11:42 PM, Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com> wrote:
I agree that these comparison pages are very valuable; no question. However, one problem with them is that they are also time-sensitive. I don't expect any of the modules mentioned to stand still. That means much of the data is going to become outdated; some in a month, some in 6 months. Are we also committing to keeping these pages up to date? Out of date/wrong documentation can be just as bad if not worse than no documentation at all.
--Larry Garfield the killjoy
On Wed, 4 Jun 2008 20:21:54 +0100, "Stella Power" <stella@stellapower.net> wrote:
I added one to the lightbox2 module page too.
On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 10:05 AM, Richard Burford < rich@freestylesystems.co.uk> wrote:
Agreed. A link from each module page to the comparison would be good a good addition. I'll add one for Shadowbox now.
psynaptic http://freestylesystems.co.uk http://api.freestylesystems.co.uk
On 4 Jun 2008, at 02:25, Karen Stevenson wrote:
I think a 'module comparisons' section is important enough to deserve a
top-level place in the handbook, with a link from the downloads page to make it easy for someone looking for modules to find. I actually think writeups like this are far more useful that the contrib module rating system that is often discussed. What does a 5 star rating tell you? It tells you the module solved a specific problem for the person who rated it, it doesn't tell you if it will solve *your* problem or be useful in *your* situation. But this kind of writeup makes it easy to see which module is the best fit for your particular situation, which is really really useful.
This should not be buried down in the module documentation -- someone looking at one of the other modules would never see it. It should be very prominent (and that hopefully would also encourage other people to add more of these kinds of comparisons).
For instance a good comparison of the different wysiwyg editors would be pretty useful :)
Karen
----- Original Message ---- From: FGM <fgm@osinet.fr> To: development@drupal.org Sent: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 10:27:32 AM Subject: Re: [development] lightbox module comparison
I've done one on the two glossary modules I'm aware of (glossary.module and g2.module), it's on the g2 project page. Maybe there are more, though ?
This being said, you might have something: module duplication and module voting being recurrent themes, it might make sense to formalize a rule like: "if you're doing a module that resembles other modules, create a comparison page, that will go in the <to be determined> section of the handbook", in the dev manual.
What do you think of it ?
FGM
Q: Why don't we display 'Last Updated' on all handbook pages using Drupal's internal information? sun
I was just thinking this myself. It would certainly save a lot of work which could be better spent on other documentation tasks. psynaptic http://freestylesystems.co.uk http://api.freestylesystems.co.uk On 5 Jun 2008, at 00:26, Daniel F. Kudwien wrote:
Q: Why don't we display 'Last Updated' on all handbook pages using Drupal's internal information?
sun
On 6/5/08, Richard Burford wrote:
I was just thinking this myself. It would certainly save a lot of work which could be better spent on other documentation tasks.
psynaptic
I've started a discussion on the documentation list to discuss this: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/2008-June/006128.html
I'd like to mention that Stella has (supposedly) mailed the maintainers of all mentioned modules to review the article and point out mistakes/explain allegedly missing features etc. I think it is very important to give module maintainers the chance to do also for future comparisons; so when you're planning to do your own module shootout, please consider this. Konstantin On 05.06.2008, at 00:48, Stella Power wrote:
Well I plan on keeping the lightbox comparison page up to date, hopefully with some updates from the individual module maintainers. It's also why I have a "Last Updated" bit at the top of the comparison, so people reading it can see exactly how recent it is. I also have a date beside each module in the first overview table to show when the info on that particular module was last updated.
Cheers, Stella
On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 11:42 PM, Larry Garfield <larry@garfieldtech.com
wrote:
I agree that these comparison pages are very valuable; no question. However, one problem with them is that they are also time- sensitive. I don't expect any of the modules mentioned to stand still. That means much of the data is going to become outdated; some in a month, some in 6 months. Are we also committing to keeping these pages up to date? Out of date/wrong documentation can be just as bad if not worse than no documentation at all.
--Larry Garfield the killjoy
On Wed, 4 Jun 2008 20:21:54 +0100, "Stella Power" <stella@stellapower.net
wrote: I added one to the lightbox2 module page too.
On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 10:05 AM, Richard Burford < rich@freestylesystems.co.uk> wrote:
Agreed. A link from each module page to the comparison would be good a good addition. I'll add one for Shadowbox now.
psynaptic http://freestylesystems.co.uk http://api.freestylesystems.co.uk
On 4 Jun 2008, at 02:25, Karen Stevenson wrote:
I think a 'module comparisons' section is important enough to deserve a
top-level place in the handbook, with a link from the downloads page to make it easy for someone looking for modules to find. I actually think writeups like this are far more useful that the contrib module rating system that is often discussed. What does a 5 star rating tell you? It tells you the module solved a specific problem for the person who rated it, it doesn't tell you if it will solve *your* problem or be useful in *your* situation. But this kind of writeup makes it easy to see which module is the best fit for your particular situation, which is really really useful.
This should not be buried down in the module documentation -- someone looking at one of the other modules would never see it. It should be very prominent (and that hopefully would also encourage other people to add more of these kinds of comparisons).
For instance a good comparison of the different wysiwyg editors would be pretty useful :)
Karen
----- Original Message ---- From: FGM <fgm@osinet.fr> To: development@drupal.org Sent: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 10:27:32 AM Subject: Re: [development] lightbox module comparison
I've done one on the two glossary modules I'm aware of (glossary.module and g2.module), it's on the g2 project page. Maybe there are more, though ?
This being said, you might have something: module duplication and module voting being recurrent themes, it might make sense to formalize a rule like: "if you're doing a module that resembles other modules, create a comparison page, that will go in the <to be determined> section of the handbook", in the dev manual.
What do you think of it ?
FGM
Are we also committing to keeping these pages up to date? Out of date/wrong documentation can be just as bad if not worse than no documentation at all.
As a maintainer of a module that is included in one of these comparisons, it's in my interest to update that page to reflect recent changes. If it's rated poor, and I'll never update the page, it will stay poor (and probably is). sun
I agree with Daniel on this. It's also an issue for /any/ documentation in the handbook - I found a drupal 4.3 site listed in the top level site showcases handbook page the other week. We might want a note somewhere on the parent page making this point very clearly, and the 'last updated' in big letters on the thickbox article might be worth replicating. On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 11:55 PM, Daniel F. Kudwien <news@unleashedmind.com> wrote:
Are we also committing to keeping these pages up to date? Out of date/wrong documentation can be just as bad if not worse than no documentation at all.
As a maintainer of a module that is included in one of these comparisons, it's in my interest to update that page to reflect recent changes. If it's rated poor, and I'll never update the page, it will stay poor (and probably is).
sun
I've moved this up to the top level of "beyond the basics" (alongside snippets, modules, themes, howtos etc.). And it's even got a WYSIWYG comparison in it (although a few months old now). I'd quite like to see a comparison of the various 'related/similar content' modules - there must be at least 10-15 by now. Image modules would be a massive help for newbies. Must be lots of others. Nat On 6/4/08, Karen Stevenson wrote:
I think a 'module comparisons' section is important enough to deserve a top-level place in the handbook, with a link from the downloads page to make it easy for someone looking for modules to find. I actually think writeups like this are far more useful that the contrib module rating system that is often discussed. What does a 5 star rating tell you? It tells you the module solved a specific problem for the person who rated it, it doesn't tell you if it will solve *your* problem or be useful in *your* situation. But this kind of writeup makes it easy to see which module is the best fit for your particular situation, which is really really useful.
This should not be buried down in the module documentation -- someone looking at one of the other modules would never see it. It should be very prominent (and that hopefully would also encourage other people to add more of these kinds of comparisons).
For instance a good comparison of the different wysiwyg editors would be pretty useful :)
Karen
I think we may also need a comparison on the different "access" modules available. For example, there's "node access", "taxonomy access control", "taxonomy access control lite", "simple access", "path access", "url access", ... While I'm sure they all do different things, it would be useful to an overview page of the features provided by each. I also wouldn't mind a comparison on the ecommerce modules available in Drupal, though perhaps that would be too big a task for one person! I'm sure I saw a comparison of e-commerce and ubercart somewhere on the web, can't find it right now, but it might be another useful link to add to this section of the handbook. It might be useful to see comparisons that other users want too. Should users create documentation tasks? Or should they just scratch their own itch? I'm already a member of the docs team and certainly wouldn't mind helping with this. Cheers, Stella On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 2:25 AM, Karen Stevenson <karen@elderweb.com> wrote:
I think a 'module comparisons' section is important enough to deserve a top-level place in the handbook, with a link from the downloads page to make it easy for someone looking for modules to find. I actually think writeups like this are far more useful that the contrib module rating system that is often discussed. What does a 5 star rating tell you? It tells you the module solved a specific problem for the person who rated it, it doesn't tell you if it will solve *your* problem or be useful in *your* situation. But this kind of writeup makes it easy to see which module is the best fit for your particular situation, which is really really useful.
This should not be buried down in the module documentation -- someone looking at one of the other modules would never see it. It should be very prominent (and that hopefully would also encourage other people to add more of these kinds of comparisons).
For instance a good comparison of the different wysiwyg editors would be pretty useful :)
Karen
----- Original Message ---- From: FGM <fgm@osinet.fr> To: development@drupal.org Sent: Tuesday, June 3, 2008 10:27:32 AM Subject: Re: [development] lightbox module comparison
I've done one on the two glossary modules I'm aware of (glossary.module and g2.module), it's on the g2 project page. Maybe there are more, though ?
This being said, you might have something: module duplication and module voting being recurrent themes, it might make sense to formalize a rule like: "if you're doing a module that resembles other modules, create a comparison page, that will go in the <to be determined> section of the handbook", in the dev manual.
What do you think of it ?
FGM
participants (7)
-
Daniel F. Kudwien -
Karen Stevenson -
Konstantin Käfer -
Larry Garfield -
Nathaniel Catchpole -
Richard Burford -
Stella Power