[development] module duplication in Drupal contrib

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

On Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:49:48 -0500
Larry Garfield <larry at garfieldtech.com> wrote:

> 
> On Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:20:17 +0100, Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
> <mail at webthatworks.it> wrote:
> 
> > Larry was pointing out one problem of writing duplicates... waste
> > of resources... but well first you'd be able to find if there is a
> > duplicate module, then you've to evaluate it (compare it with more
> > than one module), then you've to see if you can contribute[1] to
> > the one you think is most similar to your needs.

[snip]

> Deliberate duplication is fine, and is a healthy part of open
> source.

> Unintentional duplication is a waste of time and energy and only
> leads to confusion for users.

My point is that before you get to "intentional" duplication...
you've to know you're duplicating... so knowing easier you're
duplicating something should solve the later and put you a step
further to the former.

Any policy about duplication is just a burden on someone (the dev
and/or the "controllers").
Tools and simple guidelines that help you to spot duplicates and
contribute easier to existing projects[1] will do more than vetoing.

Some of these tools shouldn't be too hard to implement (eg. metatags
in .info files and deeper categorisation), others may be harder and
with an unknown ROI (related modules, free tagging, reviews, scores,
most popular download).

[1] I've to admit I just recently thought about the issue queue of a
module as a way to submit patches for features even if I did use the
issue queue to submit some patch for bugs and I'm still unsure about
what should be the halal way to contribute to modules (and to core?).


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