My ONLY gripe with MODS

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edgar davids
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My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by edgar davids »

WHY WHY WHY Gentlemen? I think it should be mandatory before any MOD gets validated to have some sort of version control. This can be either included with the installation instructions or in a seperate .txt file (i.e; History.txt, Version.txt etc). In my experience, before I update a MOD, I find myself sifting through pages of posts looking for differences in the code from an older version to a newer one and reasons WHY I want/need to upgrade it.
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Re: My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by igorw »

That's a tough one. From a user perspective I tend to agree. The MODX file includes a version history that describes changes, and I believe MOD authors use it. The upgrade instructions however can be a lot of work and quite a pain for a MOD author. Having a newer version without upgrade instructions is better than having no new version at all. Now, you will be glad to hear that the new customisation db gives you a list of all past releases. So at least you can compare them by hand now if there are no upgrade instructions.

The problem is the system (no, I'm not a hippie). The fact that MOD instructions need to be written by hand is the problem, and this most certainly will not change for phpBB 3.0. Some things are planned for phpBB 3.1.
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Sajaki
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Re: My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by Sajaki »

well, i always put my changelog and readme info in /contrib in a nicely formatted html.

it takes some work in the beginning, but it's worth it down the line.

it's my exp that the history tag in install.xml isn't read by users generally since they just load it in automod so i think i'm on the right track.
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Re: My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by DavidIQ »

I tend to provide update instructions if the MOD turns out to be a bit popular. However providing this is not mandatory/required for MOD authors. It would be better if no code edits would be done at all and just hooks would be used so if any updates happen then all you do is upload the files and you're done. But that's not so easy to do with 3.0.x. Hopefully we'll see some changes for this in 3.1 that will make MOD installation a breeze.
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noth
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Re: My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by noth »

edgar davids wrote: I find myself sifting through pages of posts looking for differences in the code from an older version to a newer one and reasons WHY I want/need to upgrade it.
this could be equally applied to STYLES (other than prosilver and subsilver2)

there are some STYLES out there that have been abandoned at 3.0.4 or even earlier :oops:

authors of styles and mods who do this, should have their topics locked (I know some styles have already been locked according to that ruling) or innocent admins lured by attractive styles/ mods could be downloading something that worked well on DAY 1 and is now well past it's 'sell by date' :x
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Re: My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by Pony99CA »

edgar davids wrote:WHY WHY WHY Gentlemen? I think it should be mandatory before any MOD gets validated to have some sort of version control. This can be either included with the installation instructions or in a seperate .txt file (i.e; History.txt, Version.txt etc).
A version history is not version control. SubVerison, Git, CVS, etc. do version control; a text file does not.

Plus, would you totally rely on one anyway? They're written by humans, and humans make mistakes. I've been burned by "bonus fixes" that went into products that I was testing that said "We fixed this" but neglected to mention the other items they "fixed".

It's a good idea to have one (and I put one in my scripts), but if you're really concerned, the best history is gotten by diffing the code against the prior release.

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Highway of Life
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Re: My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by Highway of Life »

It would help if MOD Authors put their code into a repository, and linked to it in one of their MOD topics or in the MODX file itself. There are many free services out there: github.com, Assembla, Google Code, BitBucket. But it would have to be up to the MOD Author to choose to use these, we can only hope and encourage them to do so. Aside from that, your best utility is a diff to compare one version to the next.
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Re: My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by Oleg »

Separately from that mod database could version control all mods passing through it.
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Re: My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by Dog Cow »

Highway of Life wrote:It would help if MOD Authors put their code into a repository
Titania should have versioning, then.
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Re: My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by Highway of Life »

Dog Cow wrote:
Highway of Life wrote:It would help if MOD Authors put their code into a repository
Titania should have versioning, then.
Can you elaborate?
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Re: My ONLY gripe with MODS

Post by Dog Cow »

Highway of Life wrote:
Dog Cow wrote:
Highway of Life wrote:It would help if MOD Authors put their code into a repository
Titania should have versioning, then.
Can you elaborate?
Well, basically what you've posted so far in this topic. It would be a neat feature if Titania tracked diffs between successive revisions of a given MODification.
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