[development] api.drupal.org enhancements

[Chad Phillips -- Apartment Lines]

normally i'd just leave this as a project feature request, but since  
it concerns the future of api.drupal.org, i thought i'd at least  
bring it to everyone's attention:

http://drupal.org/node/101308 -- make api objects nodes

Description

discussion with some fellow devs has led me to explore the idea of  
making the api module run through the node system -- ie, any api  
'objects' (functions, files, constants, topics, php functions, etc.)  
would be mapped to one object per node.

ADVANTAGES:
1. more robust searching for free: the main documentation would be  
made the body of the node, so regular searches via search module  
would provide another search vector.

2. comments: users would be able to add comments to further clarify  
the doc, ala php.net

3. bookmarks: using bookmark module, users could have a handy block  
of links to their most used doc sections.

4. ratings/reviews: using voting modules, posted comments could be  
community moderated by popularity

...and probably half a million other things we get for free, or are  
easily accessible, because we are interfacing with drupal's primary  
content system.

DISADVANTAGES:
1. performance hit: going through the node system *could* be slower  
than the current system, which might slow down the doc site for  
everybody.

2. more code to maintain: the module will probably get even more  
complex if we take this route.

3. more site maintainance: if we're installing other contrib modules  
to get some of the above features, then it will be more maintenance/ 
upgrade work for the api.drupal.org folks.

if you have any insights, please post them to the issue listed above!

thanks,

hunmonk