Jeroen De Dauw wrote:
As some might remember, I raised the question of the Validator extension [0] could be included in the tarball earlier this year [1]. This extensions goal is facilitating features in other extensions, which makes it somewhat unique, and is I think a good reason to include it in the tarball. It currently has 8 other extensions that are directly dependent on it, and at least a dozen more that are indirectly dependent on it, so having it in the tarball would make using it easier for extension devs.
[0] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Validator [1] http://www.mail-archive.com/wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org/msg11876.html
Are you familiar with ExtensionFunctions.php? This extension kind of reminds me of it. I only briefly read through the docs, but it seems like the kind of code that should be in core, particularly if multiple extensions are relying on it. MediaWiki administration is already cumbersome; added dependencies should be killed when possible, not encouraged.
MZMcBride