[development] duplication and input format modules

[Dries Buytaert]

On 09 Aug 2007, at 07:54, Neil Drumm wrote:
>> Personally, I don't think duplicated modules are that big of a
>> problem and it is certainly something we should _not_ punish people
>> for.  I'm a firm believer of the fact that "deliberate duplication"
>> is a good.  "Unfortunate duplication", i.e. duplication as the result
>> of the fact that the author didn't know an almost identical module
>> already existed, is something we have to reduce though.
>
> Is the problem not looking, or looking and not finding? I doubt we can
> make a lot of progress telling people to look if they are not
> motivated to do it. Improving module findability would be a bigger
> help. The module creators who are motivated would have an easier job.
> And the much larger group of module users would be able to find
> modules easier.

I agree.  A lot of these groups, like the contributed-module-ideas  
group (to some extend), are quick ugly hacks to work around an  
underlying problem.  I'd prefer to see people spend their time on  
improving the underlying problem (i.e. module findability).  It keeps  
amazing me why people aren't a little bit more critic towards these  
kind of hacks.  I guess other people will fix the module findability  
problem then ...

--
Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/