Which files are affected by the contributions?

[paulm2003]

It would be very handy to have a list or table which shows what files are affected (edited or replaced) by each contribution. It will be much easyer to determin which contributions can be combined.

 

And if a developer wants to make a contribution compatible with others a quick look in this list can help him to do so.

 

Is this a good idea?

Does such a list already exist?

[iansears]

Paul,

 

Each contribution affects the files in a different way. You are misunderstaning that there is a "contribution system" that is edited when adding a contribution. There is not. Understand that osCommerce is being developed daily. The core files are being edited and improved on a daily basis by many programmers through a well organized system of collaboration.

 

A contribution, as we call them, is kind of like "jumping the gun" and re-writing the code now, rather than when osCommerce is finished. Now that's ok! It's like testing an idea and communicating the results of your test back to the osCommerce community. If the Contribution is such a huge improvement over the core development code base, it might be considered for inclusion in the core code.

 

So, for now, make a complete backup of your site, download each contribution and study their reame.txt or install files. Understand that when you install your second and third contributions you might be forced to make a choice where some "same bit of code" gets modified in two very different ways, ok?

 

Perhaps someday we will all arrive at a way to make the core code unchanged, and allow any Contribution to be installed and uninstalled, turned on and turned off perhaps within Admin. But to do so now would force everything already developed to be re-written.

 

Hope this helps,

Ian Sears

[email protected]

[paulm2003]

Hi Ian,

 

thank for your response.

I understand now it is very complicated/not practical to make such a list and keep it updated. But still I think that the contribution "system" should be improved.

 

Is a separate forum, where people can tell which contributions they found to be compatible with others, a good idea then? With a (short) explanation how they did it.