[wplug-internet] Membership Database design

[Joe Prostko]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 9:28 PM, John Lewis <oflameo2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Final warning!
>
> If I don't see a line of PHP code posted to the wplug-internet mailing
> list by Wednesday, I will just start dumping code.

Maybe I simply missed out on all of this somehow, but before I write a
single line of code, I need to see a requirements document or some such
thing to see what the scope of this is (even if I help write said
document).  I've wasted too much time over the years as a developer
implementing something according to what I was told, and then had to throw
away a lot of code over and over as the requirements changed.  I don't have
a ton of patience for that nowadays, especially when it comes to volunteer
projects that are competing with time for my day job and any freelance work
I'm doing on weeknights and weekends.  I have no problem throwing away code
that I write that is "garbage", but I am less ecstatic when I have to
rewrite a ton of code due to me and the client (or whomever) having
different ideas of what all needs implemented and how.

Yes, it's a contact/membership database that needs interacted with, but are
we going the MediaWiki plugin route, or is this all standalone outside of
MediaWiki?  How do we plan on interfacing with Stripe and other payment
outlets?   I remember Vance and Pat looking at a page showing the schema as
decided in the past and all of that, so obviously there has been some work
and discussion done previously.  Anyway, my point is I'd prefer there being
no room for interpretation since it should be all explicitly laid out, and
we just have this all decided before the actual work begins.  That is why I
didn't really give a ton of input on the schema layout either, since I
prefer doing work like that after the requirements are stable.

Also, I don't see the value in posting code to a mailing list.  That should
live in a code repository somewhere where interested parties can see it and
any trusted developers can contribute to it.  I don't mind setting up a
Fossil repository on our VPS, but if we'd rather use Git/Hg/whatever on a
service like Github or Bitbucket (or hosted via something like Gitlab), I'm
not opposed to that either.

If you want one line of code though, here you go.  ;)

<?php

(Okay, I'm joking obviously, and I am glad you are trying to keep this
project moving.  I don't know if using terms like "Final warning!" are a
good motivator though.  Terms like that tend not to motivate people doing
work on a volunteer project, where people work on what they want when they
want when they have time.  That type of language certainly doesn't motivate
me anyway, quite honestly.)

Keep in mind everything I stated above is my opinion.  If you'd rather just
start dumping in a bunch of code that may or may not ever be used, feel
free.  I like to take a more systematic approach though when given the
choice so I don't end up with an unmaintainable mess.

- joe
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