Marcin Cieslak wrote:
Matthew Walker mwalker@wikimedia.org wrote:
[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/PDF_rendering/Architecture
I think requirement number one is that Jimmy the casual MediaWiki user would be able to install his own renederer without replicating WMF infrastructure:
Matthew replied on-wiki, but I'll add that there's a dream within the MediaWiki tech community to be able to simply do "apt-get mediawiki" or similar on a spun-up virtual machine and everything will quickly and easily be set up for you.
There's a contrasting view that MediaWiki should only serve as the platform for Wikimedia wikis (large, high-volume sites) and that it's overkill for any small wiki setup. This view also usually advocates not focusing on third-party support, naturally, which removes Jimmy the casual MediaWiki user from the equation.
Whether either of these ideas (and many more) should guide architectural design decisions is, of course, a matter of debate. :-)
MZMcBride