[development] duplication and input format modules

[Derek Wright]

On Aug 9, 2007, at 5:06 AM, Dries Buytaert wrote:

> 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).

Yes and no.  I agree module "findability" (nice word) is currently  
not ideal on d.o.  Yes, I'd love to see other people help with this.   
However, this isn't the only problem here, which is why I support  
some kind of way for people say "I've got an idea for a module to do  
X, what do y'all think?".

Many modules in contrib are so powerful and flexible now, that lots  
of things can be solved by creatively bolting of existing things  
together.  For example, the answer to "I think I need a module for X"  
might be "no, all you need is to setup a node_queue for that, and use  
a view that does blah with a filter on node_queue exclusion".  I'd  
have no friggin' clue to search for "node_queue" or even to know  
about node_queue exclusion views, but that might just be the answer  
to my problem (this is a real example from a conversation I had with  
Earl not too long ago).

I'm sure I could come up with countless other examples of problems  
solved by non-obvious combinations of existing powerful contribs, but  
I think everyone will grant that this is true without more evidence.


Therefore, while I'm fully in favor of people spending cycles on  
making modules easier to find on d.o, I'm not opposed to a more  
structured place for people to say "I think I need to write a module  
to allow X, should I do it?" and get informed answers from people  
more familiar with the existing state of the art.

Cheers,
-Derek