[Labs-l] Hello, and the short term plans

[Daniel Schwen]

> One thing I'd consider superplusgood in this regard is, when
> code is shared by different tools, it's not by sharing one
> common directory, but with properly packaged modules so that
> a) there is some logging of what was when installed/updated,
> and b) it's not possible for someone to accidentally bring
> all tools using the library to a standstill by some unre-
> viewed modification to the shared directory.
>
> This may be overkill for some libraries, and you can emulate
> the package management provided by the OS with a bunch of
> ad-hoc scripts and very strict SOPs, but in a environment
> where all boxes will run Ubuntu and knowledge about Debian
> packaging is relatively widespread, I think going the extra
> mile (well, rather yard) is definitely worth it.


Yeah, I don't like where this is going.

When the design for tool labs is made by "admin"-people that want
everything puppetized and packaged and what not you will screw the
"hacker"-people that probably are the majority on the ts right now.

While a "hacker" mentality can create quite a bit of chaos, it also
provides a flat learning curve and lowers barriers to "just try
something" and do stuff. Many tools are the product of a quick idea
that people want to see implemented _fast_ before the that initial
surge of motivation is gone and nobody on-wiki is interested anymore.

I've already stared in horror the discussion on the webtools project,
which to me (and this is just a very subjective opinion) seems overly
academic and out of touch with the user community.

Part of what makes the TS great (at least for me) is the possibility
for experimenting and ad hoc development.
Daniel