Hi. I’m eaton.twitter.com/eaton
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Jeff Eaton.Core Drupal developer.Co-author of Using Drupal.Consultant and architect at Lullabot.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Primarily large clientsHelping them plan, get out of pickles, etc.Lots of training, public and private.Although I got involved with code, I spend most of my time planning and coordinating. I’m that guy.
WARNING
NO CODESaturday, October 16, 2010
A warning: Today is a NO CODE ZONE. We’re thinking meta.This is my cheesemonger. No money to think meta.This is the White House. No time to think meta.Both of them are affected - mom’s D5 site broke, and drupal is now differentAt events like this we have the luxury of it.We’re planning for the future.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Let’s go to imagination land and think about some big questions.
1: Platypodes2: Carnivore, Bill3: Mammal, Eggs4: Electric Nose5: Milk Sweat6: Poison Feet
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Plural is NOT platypiChipmunk cheeks, too.Two ovaries, but they only use one
Phase 2?
Nuclear HoovesSaturday, October 16, 2010
1: Three Queues2: Profile Module3: Two Actions4: OOrrays5: Block Regions6: Yeah, Images
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Remind anyone of something?Drupal - our complexity is platypus-style
Version 8?
Poisonous FeetSaturday, October 16, 2010
The Platypus Problem:
Inexplicable Emergent
Complexity
Saturday, October 16, 2010
http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/2134277399Saturday, October 16, 2010
Is complexity truly a problem?Isn’t it something that we can throw more people at? More documentation?Isn’t it just the eternal tug-of-war?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77422674@N00/693945631/
Construction
Saturday, October 16, 2010
“There’s a module for that” -- or 100 modulesHow many tools do you have on your largest site? How many modules?Did you use the RIGHT ONES? How do you know?Are they released? are they changing? Security update? Cross-module compatability?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27164277@N00/495517899/
Code
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Solving bigger and bigger problems.We have more contributors, we have more moving parts.Dries doesn't get it all, webchick can't keep track, chx doesn't recognize it allI don't even know what modules were released this weekSame problem in contrib: Views for Drupal 6 is larger than Drupal 5Multiple solutions emerging every day
Community
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8897633@N02/4923221504/Saturday, October 16, 2010
It's not a club anymore.There are whole swaths of people who didn't get the 'chx' jokeWho should do X? Who should I ASK about Y? Who’s responsible for Y? Pay vs Hobbyists? What is Karma FOR?Who explains Karma to the newcomers?
Yes.It’s a Problem.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
How do we cope with it?How do we understand it?The good news is that it’s not just our problem.
“I put a GridView onto my CallBack control and now I get a ViewState is corrupt error”. The real answer to this question is not the one supplied: “this is
fixed in the next version.”
http://whatupdave.tumblr.com/post/1170718843/leaving-net
Saturday, October 16, 2010
ASP.Net projects rely on an ecosystem of Web ControlsUpgrade compatabilities, support hassles, etc.
“It’s a pile of spaghetti with insane indirection and module
dependencies and you’re lucky if you manage to import anything at all.
Every other function tries to import modules for you automatically and
circular imports are the norm.”
http://mockit.blogspot.com/2010/04/mess-djangos-in.html
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Django is a cluster of inter-dependent componentsBuild tools manage the complexity, but it’s there!
“From a systemadministration standpoint,
Plone is just shy of being the absolute devil.”
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/348044/what-could-justify-the-complexity-of-ploneSaturday, October 16, 2010
See, that’s just funny.Wordpress plugin bloat is a growing problemExpressionEngine users are complaining that “really” building a site requires piles of addons
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Wordpress plugin bloat is a growing problemJoomla! users have to manage their themes’ compatability with their pluginsExpressionEngine users are complaining that “really” building a site requires piles of addons...Linux is and always will be Linux.
NOT US
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21165371@N00/3245301713
Saturday, October 16, 2010
We are not special snowflakes.Drupal IS particularly susceptible to thisEven the core software itself is built that wayCulture of cross-module interactionBut it's a general problem.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12392252@N03/1839810842/
But… But…Architecture!
It’s great to plan what you control.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Architecture was supposed to protect us from this.Architecture is about plans and execution.Blueprints and timelines and tradeoffsOH THE GANNNNNNNNT CHARTS
for what
YOUcontrol
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Can this be emphasized enough?Cathedral and Bazaar has its dark sideBig danger is in ignoring itHouse with sump pumps
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Back to the platypus... Think of Drupal like evolution.We talk a lot about it, but rarely take it seriously.Even use "Natural selection" to talk about module successDries said patches are mutations!We call Drupal an Ecosystem, but we ignore it when we plan.
Drupal: AnEcosystem?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
We call Drupal an Ecosystem, but we ignore it when we plan.All the organisms, and habitats, etc that make up an area.The whole that emerges from all the little parts.They're independent, but related.Interdependent.
Drupal: AnEcosystem?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Core! Everyone Depends on it!Third-party modules -- jillions of them!Participants come and go, submit patchesTeeny modules emerge to fill gaps, and vanish when the techniques fall out of favor
Drupal: AnEcosystem?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Modules live on sitesSome sites add resources back insponsoring development with money or developer-hours
Drupal: AnEcosystem?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
No roadmap, no master plan.The otter can’t force the turtle to help.Wild and crazy. It works!But seriously... what does it look like if we take it seriously?
Every module is a species!
Core is a critter, too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markscott/930501687
Saturday, October 16, 2010
They evolve over time, compete, swallow each other up, etc.Sometimes they die because there isn't a place for them or they're superceded Flexinode to CCK to FieldAPI -- and modules that used to do those focused things.Views today isn't the Views of 2 years ago, and other modules have evolved to depend on it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/439737660
Mutations!
Patches arewhere change
happens
Saturday, October 16, 2010
They come constantly.Sometimes they get folded back into the main 'tree' of codesometimes they die offbut they're how drupal core and all the modules evolve.
Habitats:
The web siteswhere moduleslive and learn
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Modules live on sites.Modules that live in lots of habitats tend to thrive betterSelection pressures = size or traffic demands or specific featuresThese filter out modules that are not well adapted
Biomes! Well-known types of
habitats. Er, sites.
Profiles?http://www.flickr.com/photos/casch/292720481
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Biomes are They are the commonalities across many habitats, patterns that we can recognize.They let us learn and share the knowledge.They let us spot what DOESN’T make sense, too
NOMNOMNOM
Developers?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23382958@N02/2497966913/
Saturday, October 16, 2010
More accurately, their time is food.High-protein food for cats is different than high-fiber bamboo for a pandadifferent developers have different areas of expertise and knowledge.
Drupal: AnEcosystem.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Does ithelp us
understand?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sylvain_masson/4195880838
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Don’t HackCore!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Eventually, you inevitably diverge so much that you can't cross-breed. You're a mule! The Onion faced that problem. Platypuses face that problem, too. All their living relatives are extinct. "Hack core, and you're dead to me."
Why is itso ugly?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Key word -- design. The best work tends to emerge from the specific habitat rather than the evolutionary process. Why isn't the platypus PRETTIER? Although great design has been *dropped* on Drupal several times, it rarely emerges from the evolutionary process.
There’s a module for that!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Diversity is a good thing! Lots of little critters that fill lots of niches is good. It means that there are lots of solutions being created, and lots of evolution happening.
…But don’t duplicate modules!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Different needs, different solutions. But resource starvation is dangerous. If you're duplicating someone else's work, that's two of you who could be working on (feeding?) the same module.
Complexityis a disease!
(…but we need wysiwyg so bad…)
Saturday, October 16, 2010
...But we need more stuff in core.Small things need less food, and are more nimble.It means more interdependencies, but it doesn't put all the chips in one spot.It puts the complexity into the SYSTEM, not into the SPECIES.It’s a tradeoff that makes us more agile in some ways but more vulnerable in others
Talk is silvercode is gold
Saturday, October 16, 2010
The 'natural selection' quality only kicks in when something is out there. Ideas are important and need to be discussed and evaluated, but the process that the vast majority of the community
The take-away
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Study your habitat
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Look at your site using that habitat analogyThink of it in terms of the high level functions that it needs: user feedback, product sales, etcConsider what kinds of ‘creatures’ are well suited for itPutting dev hours into contrib is like feeding the fauna
Know your honeybees
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Anyone know about the honeybee crash?Study the subtle interdependencies in your habitat/site.Watch the vulnerable parts - does your site live and die by hook_cron?Is there one contributor that helps in every issue?
Spot the mammals
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Change comes, and the tools you built with will change.Ber Kessels -- God bless him -- stuck with Flexinode.Watch new modules, screencasts, blog posts, site writeupsWatch for trends that affect you.
Plan for extinction
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Modules go away.Contributors get busy, start dating.Maintaining dead modules is like captive breedingEXERCISE: pick five modules, pretend they vanished
Respect the platypodes
Arrrrrr.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Inexplicable, emergent complexity can baffle us all.The biggest danger is pretending it isn’t thereArchitecture needs context. Don’t punt on complexity - it’s like saying, “Use sump pumps.”