vic wrote:
Hi ...
I would like to know if the development lines of mediawiki will be
extensively
tied (or slown down) because of wikipedia ...
The reason of my question, is that i am recently reading the mailing
list , and show
that developers and contributions are allways extensily closed to
wikipedia requirements,
not open to new ideas beyond enciclopedias.
A general use wiki with mediawiki engine would be great, ( i am using it
to developments
documentation) ... but it lacks features like authentication and email
notifications
(i know the 1.4 plans on this features), that i think are being slown
down by the
WIKIPEDIA ...
What is your oppinion ???
Another branch of mediawiki with general features would be great.
Development for Wikimedia projects is excessively slowed down by the
constant need to cater for non-Wikimedia users. A slow release cycle
suits non-Wikimedia users, because they want the software to work out of
the box. Security flaws exposed in a release can't be rapidly corrected,
because it requires hundreds of users to upgrade their copy.
Wikimedia projects on the other hand would benefit from continuous
introduction of features ported from the unstable branch, once a
suitable testing sequence has been completed. Bugs, security flaws and
other non-ideal behaviour can be easily corrected, since there is only
one live copy to update. Currently, desparately needed features are
delayed for many months because despite being tested, they are
considered too unstable for release in a minor version increment.
Readying the unstable branch itself for release requires many hours of
work fixing half-completed features written by other people, committed
and then abandoned by developers who have more interesting things to do.
A methodology of continuous release to Wikimedia would at least provide
an incentive for these developers to finish what they started.
In my opinion, non-Wikimedia users have no right to expect MediaWiki
development to cater for them. Their needs are incidental. So I agree
with the OP, on a practical level if not philosophically. Another branch
would suit me just fine.
-- Tim Starling