[development] Freezing the Drupal API

[Khalid B]

On 5/15/06, Richard Archer <drupal.org at juggernaut.com.au> wrote:
> Recent discussions on the Consultants list has raised the issue of
> the cost of doing business using Drupal, notably the high cost of
> upgrading existing installations due to the ever-changing nature
> of Drupal's API.
>
> I wonder if there would be any interest in forming a group to
> tackle this by identifying where the current API has potential
> for improvement and perhaps even writing some code!
>
> My aim would be that as of Drupal 5.0 with CCK, the published
> API would be treated as "stable" and changes to it would be
> resisted strongly.
>
> IMHO, if this could be achieved it would give Drupal a much more
> mature look and make it more attractive to large users.
>
> It would also increase the manpower available to work on future
> Drupal development because right now extra resources are being
> wasted maintaining the 4.5 and 4.6 trees, simply because the API
> changes between releases makes it impractical for many users to
> upgrade to 4.7.

The shifting API from release to release is a pain, yes, but the benefits
of that outweigh the drawbacks.

The core developers innovate as they see fit, and do not let the API freeze
limit their creativity, the features to be implemented, or the overall
flexibility,
power and compactness of Drupal's core.

Perhaps it is best to spend energy on migration paths (e.g. Flexinode
to CCK, forms updater, ...etc.) rather than freeze the API early.

Let the creative juices flow ...