[development] Seems I need to take sandbox in my own hands

[Nedjo Rogers]

If I'm understanding correctly, the point is not "Don't do what you've been 
doing in sandboxes," but rather "Do it in the /contributions/modules 
directory instead, it's better there".

As folks have pointed out, the sandboxes have served a valuable role for 
contrib modules. As developers, many of us have used our sandboxes as places 
to work up experimental code. We have benefited from access to others' code.

But do we need to do this particularly in sandboxes?

The use of sandboxes for developing code valuable to the community has had 
some costs, e.g., multiple versions of the same module (not clear which one 
is current), obsolete code not deleted when a newer version is in 
contributions/modules, loss of CVS history when code is moved, etc.

Personally, I've used my sandbox because I hesitate to put code in the 
'sacred' /contributions/modules directory. What I'm hearing is, don't worry 
so much.

Starting an experimental project, not yet (maybe never) ready for 
distribution? Go ahead, create a new directory at contributions/modules and 
do it there. Not ready for download? Simple, just don't create a project - 
yet - on drupal.org. Only people doing CVS browsing or checkouts will see 
it. All developers will have CVS write access to the directory (just like 
has always been the case for sandboxes), so you can collaborate. Experiment 
to your heart's content. Later, you can always delete the project, or create 
a drupal.org project for it if/when it's ready, or request to have it moved 
elsewhere (e.g., into an existing project's directory, if it's meant as part 
of that project).  Look through the /modules directory right now and you'll 
find plenty of directories like this.

So,  I'm thinking, we're not really losing anything. We're just going back 
to how it was always supposed to be: develop new code in its place, rather 
than in a sandbox.  As an added bonus, we won't lose CVS history for 
projects. In general (CVS maintainers, please correct me if I'm wrong), we 
can summarize the message as "The contributions/modules directory, rather 
than sandboxes, is the right place for (experimental or otherwise) code for 
contrib modules".