[development] How to port modules? was: Drupal 7 "When it's Ready"

[Earl Miles]

Paolo Mainardi wrote:
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 5:23 AM, Earl Miles <merlin at logrus.com 
> <mailto:merlin at logrus.com>> wrote:
> nd
>
> A good API could change the implementation without changing the 
> signatures, they not are strictly related, it's not the only practices 
> to do the things.
>
> How is related from the data storage and API ? At API level, we don't 
> do any assumption on how data is stored or how is the internal 
> implementation, these are things to a lower (not API) level.
>
> I think could be possible to write a sort of more abstract general API 
> on top of existent for expose a bunch of general "services" with 
> Drupal versions compatilibity in mind. Could be a plugin.
I'm sorry, you just told me that I'm wrong.

Which is it:

a) You believe I don't know what I'm talking about.
b) You believe I am lying.

Seriously. This is NOT just about function signatures. Drupal's API is 
not just a set of functions. It's about events, timing, and it is about 
data storage. You can *say* until you're blue in the face that these 
things are not true, but that will not make you right.

I frankly find it distressing that people who say how easy it would be 
to have a backward compatibility API are people who clearly don't 
actually understand the codebase.