2

On December first February 18, 2013, Drupal 8 enters feature freeze. It means no new features will be added after that date.

Is acceptable to ask questions about Drupal 8, after that date? If it is acceptable, which questions should be acceptable?
Questions about bugs are already considered off-topic, and that rules out questions about Drupal 8 bugs. I was thinking more to conceptual answers, such as "What is the equivalent of menu_execute_active_handler() in Drupal 8?" (OK, it is not the best question I could think, but it is just an example. :))

Should we wait there is a beta release, or that Drupal.org API doesn't have any issue with parsing Drupal 8 code to show documentation pages correctly?
I looked at the documentation, and for a file, the documentation page didn't show any code, while the file in my Drupal 8 test site is not empty. I remember there is an open issue on Drupal.org about this, but I don't recall the link.

12
  • Code freeze makes more sense.
    – Chapabu
    Nov 20, 2012 at 15:11
  • Also, surely we're going to be ending up with a multitude of "What is the equivalent of xyz" - Does SO support "sticky" questions or the like so we could perhaps create a community wiki for frequently asked "equivalents" and leave it easily accessible for a while? Actually...would this be better suited to a meta-question =/ ?
    – Chapabu
    Nov 20, 2012 at 15:14
  • @Chapabu I'm pretty sure there's nothing 'built-in' for that...theoretically we could add a site-wide message pointing to a specific post/tag but I'm not sure if that's an appropriate use for such messages. Might be worth a feature request though :)
    – Clive Mod
    Nov 20, 2012 at 17:35
  • 1
    Did SU do anything when Windows 8 came out? I know they did blog.superuser.com/2012/10/22/windows-8-challenge but I don't know what else supported it.
    – mpdonadio Mod
    Nov 20, 2012 at 18:08
  • One thing to consider is how to handle tagging. It is possible that questions/answers become obsolete because of changes before code freeze. If we allow questions after feature freeze, I suggest we ban the "8" tag, and come up with something else until then.
    – mpdonadio Mod
    Nov 22, 2012 at 0:54
  • @MPD I am DEFINITELY in favour of this. Even if we introduce a 8-pre-release tag or something like that. Then perhaps we could migrate useful questions to the 8 tag post-release.
    – Chapabu
    Nov 22, 2012 at 9:51
  • Also, I'm not sure where to put this in this thread, but it seems like a useful place for it. The Drupal 8 Changes Twitter account lists changes as they are commited to D8.
    – Chapabu
    Nov 22, 2012 at 9:54
  • @Chapabu Change records for Drupal core is also a great place to look for current developments
    – Clive Mod
    Nov 22, 2012 at 13:09
  • The problem as I see it with a 8-pre-release tag is that by definition we're inviting ephemeral questions into the site. We could migrate useful ones to a correct tag later on, but what about the un-useful ones? I'd argue we shouldn't really have ever let those on to the site in the first place
    – Clive Mod
    Nov 22, 2012 at 13:12
  • @Clive Haha...looks like they're the same feed. I guess if you don't like Twitter, you now know where to go ;-)
    – Chapabu
    Nov 22, 2012 at 13:15
  • 2
    @Chapabu Yep, I don't like Twitter ;)
    – Clive Mod
    Nov 22, 2012 at 13:16
  • When I say un-useful, I mean questions whereby the answers have changed during development. Can they not be "bulk closed" in some way shape or form? Can you close/remove all questions if you remove a tag? Perhaps a blanket ban on D8 questions until code freeze does make the most sense when you look at it like that =/
    – Chapabu
    Nov 22, 2012 at 13:18

2 Answers 2

2

Allowing (tolerating?) questions about Drupal 8 after feature freeze will potentially allow more people to start working with the new version.

As long as DA isn't used for bug reporting, this could potentially allow better issues to be made in the official issue queue, which could potentially make Drupal 8.0 a better product.

2
  • OK, someone had to make the opposing argument. Remember that voting up/down on Meta for questions like this means agree/disagree.
    – mpdonadio Mod
    Nov 21, 2012 at 21:08
  • I like this idea, it's sort of a compromise. We can 'tolerate' questions and judge each one individually as to whether its appropriate yet. I can't imagine there being huge numbers of questions just yet anyway to be honest, but you never know I guess
    – Clive Mod
    Nov 21, 2012 at 21:38
1

I'd be inclined to think we should wait for the code freeze rather than feature freeze (Feb 1st 2013).

Questions referring to code (equivalents, new methods, etc.) won't really be answerable until then as things can change quite a lot in the space of a few months

5
  • 2
    Are questions about features acceptable, then? If they are, what kind of questions could be accepted?
    – apaderno Mod
    Nov 21, 2012 at 21:14
  • Theoretically I guess, but off the top of my head I can't formulate a question about new features that doesn't rely on some sort of code element, or would end up being a vague/shopping list question. I like MPD's idea of tolerating questions, and maybe judging each one on its own merits. After the feature freeze there might well be some good, applicable questions I just can't think of any right now
    – Clive Mod
    Nov 21, 2012 at 21:37
  • Does feature freeze mean there would not be any change in the user interface, or is that part of code freeze? I am not clear about what is part of one, or part of the other one.
    – apaderno Mod
    Nov 21, 2012 at 21:51
  • 1
    According to Dries's blog post, after feature freeze: focus turns instead to API and UI clean-ups and polishing of existing features. That's about as much of a hint as I've been able to find in reference to UI changes after that date (and not just today, I've been following D8 development pretty closely). Considering that 'API clean-ups' will take until Feb 1st 2013 maybe we can infer that 'UI clean-ups' are on the same timescale?
    – Clive Mod
    Nov 21, 2012 at 22:22
  • I wish @tim.plunkett were around, as I am pretty sure he is involved with one of the D8 initiatives.
    – mpdonadio Mod
    Nov 21, 2012 at 22:57

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .