[development] Being noisy on installation...

[Morbus Iff]

> Maybe I shouldn't have you review my modules,
 > because I do this and support the practice.

Congratulations, you're the first winner of the "We disagree on 
something, so therefore, everything said must be irrelevant!" award!

Really, I'm conflicted about the whole thing:

  * core doesn't do it
  * the guides say to do it

It's a matter of /which/ is wrong? You'll note that my lament is 
/solely/ about those modules that say "MODULE has been successfully 
installed" - I never mentioned, at all, the possibility of including a 
link to a configuration page.

Because of the current *non* persistent nature of a dsm(), yes, I 
believe that a link to a configuration page is folly, since the user 
*can never get that suggestion back* if he navigates away from the page.

I would be OK, on the other hand, with a link to a Drupal.org handbook 
page that explains how to use your module. It "solves" a few of the 
problems inherent in using a non-persistent dsm() as help:

  * if your module has multiple steps of configuration, or multiple
    screens of configuration, stuffing them all inside a dsm() is bad.

  * it centralizes documentation in the Drupal handbook, which is
    peer-reviewed, and could support multiple guides for multiple
    versions of your module. people may not know about a README.txt,
    but they probably know about the docs on drupal.org.

  * it allows the possibility of screenshots and commenting.

Using the dsm(), even for a handbook link, however, does not solve the 
problem of multiple modules being enabled at the same time (all with 
their own dsm() pulling at the attention span of the user), or its lack 
of persistence. I would find the tantalizing suggestion of a module's 
rabbit hole, lost forever because I happened to click elsewhere, had my 
browser crashed, or whatever, absolutely infuriating. It's a tease: "I 
gave you the docs, but you lost them and you'll never get them back."

I have absolutely /no/ complaint about increasing the visibility or 
attentiveness of a module's ease-of-use. Why would I? Come on, I use 
just as many contrib modules as anyone else, and I have no freaking clue 
how they operate either. You really think that being a Drupal "expert" 
gives me any edge on installing and using geshifilter (which, note, I 
spent an hour failing miserably at getting it to work for Drupal Tough 
Love, and installed codefilter instead)?

I just don't think that using the current
dsm() is the right place to do this.

What about including an "administer" link on each module's entry on 
admin/build/modules and it'd take you to admin/by-module#MODULENAME, so 
you could see all the admin-y menus that it defines?

-- 
Morbus Iff ( is this a cut out bath-poster Morbus, or what? )
Technical: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/779
Enjoy: http://www.disobey.com/ and http://www.videounderbelly.com/
aim: akaMorbus / skype: morbusiff / icq: 2927491 / jabber.org: morbus