[development] RFC: drupal as a moving target

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:52:27 +0100
<fintan at io1.biz> wrote:

> The end result is that as long as you build your processes around
> the fact that it can and will change you end up with a more
> efficient internal development environment.  As long as you take a
> longer term view, there is a net commercial gain as a result of
> improved software, more rapid adoption of new more advanced
> methods/modules and more rapid delivery to clients.

This is the kind of argument that tend to become religious, and
sooner or later people start an XP/non-XP war :)

I do plan for changes. I plan changes too.
If you've a 300K line of code product and you know you can change 30K
in a year and you know you need a revenue stream, you're not going to
change 40K.
You're going to take into account even the ROI of changing 30K lines
here or there.
I'm saying that in the future there will be a higher return in
letting contrib have a quieter life.

I appreciate Ernie suggestion about wrappers around the API... that's
just one more way to put the weight in the equation. Could it be a
transition solution? What is the cost in term of performances? etc...
etc... Still I don't see its place in the Drupal picture, where
everyone is obsessed by aesthetically nice high performance code.
(jocking... I know it is not suited with such a dense atmosphere but
it requires so much time to write balanced emails that try to express
clearly what I mean and Drumm should know it).

The "topic" now should sound something like: "How drupal is planning
for changes in the future?"

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it