[drupal-docs] Customizing applications pages

[Dries Buytaert]

On 10 May 2005, at 06:56, Boris Mann wrote:
>> How about we change modules to applications.  Everywhere else on
>> planet earth we call them applications.  It's a usability issue.
>> Every time I talk to someone who doesn't read 50 drupal posts a day
>> they look at me with a glazed look over their eyes when I say the
>> word module.
>
> They're not applications. Do you double-click and they run? They
> don't stand alone. Some of them don't even directly DO anything that
> regular folks would recognize (the Drupal module is probably a good
> example).
>
> Drupal/CivicSpace is an application. The things inside are modules,
> because they provide modular functionality.
>
> IMHO, the word "application" in this context is more misleading than
> the word module. This is a piece of terminology that must be learned
> in the context of web applications, I believe.

I have to agree with Boris.  A module is not an application.  It 
doesn't do anything on its own.  Calling a module an application, would 
be confusing.

Lots of well-known applications (Photoshop, Firefox, Thunderbird, 
Internet Explorer) have "modules", "plug-ins" or "extensions" so I'd 
think most users are familiar with the concept.  Furthermore, if 
someone has been using Wordpress, Mambo, Xoops or virtually any other 
web application, they'll be familiar with such terminology/concepts.

--
Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/