[development] Wasting time and effort

[Greg Holsclaw]

-----Original Message-----
From: development-bounces at drupal.org [mailto:development-bounces at drupal.org]
On Behalf Of Andrew Berry
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 2:38 PM
To: development at drupal.org
Subject: Re: [development] Wasting time and effort

On 9-Mar-09, at 2:15 PM, Daniel F. Kudwien wrote:

> Would it really hurt the process of evolution and innovation in  
> Drupal when
> a new project ("request") would go into a "new projects queue"  
> first, where
> all community members could do a quick review and optionally point  
> to a
> possible existing project that could benefit from additional man- 
> power,
> features, and stuff?

I think this is a good idea. I was having this conversation with some  
at DC; we all noted that for our very first contribution, we did a  
great deal of thinking, planning, and so on, but for subsequent  
modules they tend to go in without as much attention. I'm sure I'm not  
the only one who's written code only to discover after that someone  
else did it under a different name. No one I think really likes  
duplication without reason.

Long term, I think the solution is for search on d.o to continue to  
improve so that it is easy to tell within a few searches if another  
module exists. Until then, a "does this exist" queue or mailing list  
could serve quite nicely.

--Andrew

There are new modules listed at http://drupalmodules.com/new-modules/feed.
Also, many times before people have used this list to announce new modules,
or inquire if someone is already working on something which leads exactly to
the feedback that was suggested.

But I am against the 'request' verbiage that was used in this idea. Gives
the impression that an idea or module has to be approved before being worked
on, and that is not an open source ideal at all. In Drupal and other open
source projects, the hurdle to success or failure should be as low as
possible, and even parallel modules more adequately search the solution
space of a problem. All are good things. And yes, the module list has grown
from hundreds at 4.7, to thousands now, but that problem will persist as
long as Drupal is leading the pack.

Greg