[drupal-devel] Project management contribs: Bundles: grouped modules.

[Robert Douglass]

I like the idea of having a vetting team which puts together a list of
recommended modules. This should be nothing more than a list. If they
are stored separately or not is unimportant, the important aspect being
that someone who was given the job looked at the work and endorsed it.

This is not to say that modules not on the "A" list are bad, but they
might take more work to install, or are less stable/tested, or are not
as actively supported and developed. Most of us on this list would still
download them, install them and make our own decisions. Less capable
users would rightfully avoid them.

I like the idea of bundles too, but only as a way of suggesting to users
what works best. This should in no way be an enforced grouping and
should only be an alternative way to select modules.

Example: image.module and img_assist.module (4.5 versions). Both would
be listed in the "A" list, and in a separate list, a bundle called
"image bundle" would offer both together, as well as special
instructions for getting them both up and running.

This approach has several advantages. First, it takes the best parts of
everybody's ideas (so far). Second, it requires very few changes to our
current system. Third, we have nothing to lose. We don't lose the good
modules that everyone likes, and we don't lose the wild ones which can
be pretty bad and useless, but like mentioned already, play an important
role in the community. In the end, it is a presentation and packaging
problem.

The two things which we would change to achive this are: 
1) set up a vetting committee and guidelines (not too restrictive -
shouldn't become a huge political thing)
2) extend our build process to offer bundle tarballs.