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

[Chris Cook]

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 11:33:38 +0100, Bèr Kessels <berdrupal at tiscali.be> wrote:
> We have a security issue wiith CVS commits
> We have a problem with developers duplicating fatr too many code  and making
> incompatible, somteimes even plain crappy modules.
> We have a problem with people not being able to find modules.

Like some I don't think that having people submit redundant or even
buggy modules is a problem. I think it is harmful to the project to
limit 'playing around with the code'.

However, thing that I think we all agree is a problem is that it is
difficult to easily determine which modules are quality tested and
which are experimental. I think a rating system, along with some other
optional measures, could solve this problem. Furthermore, an automated
method is more likely to succeed than a manual and bureaucratic one if
it is implemented thoughtfully.

In order for a rating system to be meaningful the ratings must be
trustworthy as has been suggested. There are different ways to ensure
that the ratings are trustworthy. It has been suggested to give each
reviewer "reputation points" but I'm not convinced that it is possible
to do this fairly. Rather, I like the idea of making module reviews
moderatable. Also, reviewers should be able to comment on the module
in addition to giving it a rating.

Another optional that could be used, since we have the advantage of
bug tracking for each module, is to use the number of bugs as an
additional metric. This is another way of automating the rating system
and create a competitive environment for module developers. If they
want their module to show up at the top or have a good rating then
they'll pay attention to bugs and reviewer comments.

In conclusion, -1 for suggestions that promote bureaucratic process
and user intervention and +1 for tools that automate.

As far as bundles, I see this as a nice option for some groups of
modules but not if it means losing the individual modules. Building
modules which "require" other modules seems to go against the
principle of Drupal (any module can be added but is not required) and
should probably be avoided when possible. For this reason, having
things like image handling in the core is a great bonus.