[development] Freezing the Drupal API

[Gerhard Killesreiter]

Richard Archer wrote:
> At 11:42 PM +0200 14/5/06, Gerhard Killesreiter wrote:
>
>   
>> If you don't like this policy, use something else.
>>     
>
> I realise I have that option. But I thought I'd first do
> something constructive to try to address the biggest problem
> I have with Drupal.
>   

That's ok to do, but if you have read this ML for any length of time, 
you'd have known how that would end.

>> This would be preparation for a split of the project.
>>     
>
> My point is, there are already multiple forks of Drupal.
>   

Apparently nobody agree with you.

> There's the 4.5 branch, the 4.6 branch and the 4.7 branch.
>   

These aren't forks. The main difference is that they aren't developed 
further.

> When 4.8 is released it will have a maintainer appointed
> and there will be 4 forks.

Nope.

>  Plus the Bryght guys have
> their own version of Drupal.

Nope

>  I guess Civicspace does too.
>   

Nope, CS is a Drupal distro. The main (and probably only) difference is 
that it has an installer.

> Bèr often talks about his Sympal fork.
>   

Sympal is mainly set of install scripts, as Ber told us just today.

> This is a ludicrous and unnecessarily complex position to
> be in.

I am not going to look up ludicruous but complex it is not.

>  And all because IMHO insufficient thought has been
> put into building a robust, flexible API so that Drupal can
> be enhanced without having to hack on core or have the API
> whipped out from under your feet.
>   

Well, I fully admit that I rather write code than think about how to 
write code. Others however do quite like this. I believe there was a 
largish amount of discussion involved in the new forms API.

> It should not be so painful to upgrade from 4.5 to 4.6 that
> people stick with 4.5 for years after it has been superceded.
>   

It isn't "painful" if you don't insist in hacking everything up, if you 
wait long enough most of your contrib modules will be available and all 
you need to update yourself is your theme.

Just one thought: The problem with people complaining about difficult 
upgrades is that Drupal is easy to customize and then the updates fail. 
Would it be written in C most people wouldn't dare to touch it. :p

> I am offering to help formulate a plan whereby these problems
> can be prevented or at least lessened in the future.
>   

Well, you're welcome, but I'd rather see you write code, too. :p


Cheers,
    Gerhard