[development] nodify.module idea: 'everything is a node'

[FGM]

Dries,

You and some others obviously know more than I do about resource use in
core, but
- it seems that the changes for 6.0, with (as I understand them) node
loading mechanism becoming lighter before rendering, might make loading
faster
- the core code might become more difficult to understand (although I'm not
sure why it would, but I'm no core expert), but the API used for contrib
modules could actually become simpler, with a slightly reduced number of
hooks and no additional parameters, which could make contrib code more easy
to write and maintain: CRUD uperations like loading, updating, creating and
deleting are already hooked for each of these entities, but in a different
way. Would it not be simpler to have the same way be used for each entity ?
- you say it does not become easier for users, and this may be true. But it
certainly does not become more difficult for them, since most users are not
even aware to the "node" term
- reducing the number of tables might reduce load (otoh, same-table joins
like (content)node->nid to (user)node->nid can be less efficient on some
engines), which might indeed be a source of resource hogging, as you
suggest. This needs benchmarking, though: this is the only engineering
proof. Maybe it has been done at the occasion of one previous discussion on
this recurring theme ?

Overall though, I have the slightest impression that the rejection of the
idea might stem from having from the origin of the software held "nodes" as
the basic content entity, wrapped, complemented, and organized by every
other entity, and such a change would mean nodes become the basic entity,
not only for content, and content nodes become a specialization of this more
abstract object, which is another point of view somehow.

Note that this would pave the way for interesting evolutions like potential
revisions on terms, users and comments (and more).

Now *that* would be a major change.

Is this also considered when rejecting Nedjo's idea ?

Frederic

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dries Buytaert" <dries.buytaert at gmail.com>
To: <development at drupal.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 11:54 AM
Subject: Re: [development] nodify.module idea: 'everything is a node'


>
> On 19 Jan 2007, at 21:31, Nedjo Rogers wrote:
>
> > Questions:
> > - does this approach sound useful?
> > - who's working on something similar? better?
> > - pitfalls?
> > - anyone wanting to work on this?
>
> I've said it before and I'll say it again; the nodification of such
> objects is not a good idea for a variety of reasons. Three obvious
> reasons are: it does _not_ become easier for your users, it does
> _not_ become easier for the average developer (unless you're a Drupal
> expert, the code becomes more difficult to understand), and it will
> be an incredible resource hog.
>
> -1 for 'comments as nodes', 'users as nodes' or 'categories as nodes'.
>
> --
> Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/
>
>