[development] changes to hook_nodeapi

[Andrew Lee]

This just feels super hacky to me. When I am doing things programmatically
with a node, I don't necessarily want form validation to run. It may very
well screw me up. Often times I don't want to closely couple my node and its
operations with a form. It's not that this isn't possible with this patch;
it's just makes a lot less sense.

The other issue I have here is module compatibility. The Drupal philosophy
is to the keep the core as compact as possible, and provide additional
functionality in modules. A noble plan, indeed. This puts a lot of the value
of Drupal in the modules. When we radically change the API and create a
nightmare for module developers to bring their code up to compliance, we end
up eliminating many modules and devaluing the Drupal product overall. Why
take these operations out of hook_nodeapi if we don't need to? Is this
strictly a performance concern? How can it be with huge sites running Drupal
with no problems. If it's a performance issue, then I volunteer to find a
solution without eliminating these operations from hook_nodeapi.

Pure developers will say that this is how we strictly enforce coding
standards and provide a better product. This doesn't work for the sys-admin
running Drupal 4.6 on 20 sites and wants to upgrade to the latest and
greatest but can't because of module compatibility hell. There needs to be a
balance.

Stepping off high horse now.


-Andrew
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