On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 7:05 PM, Matthew Flaschen <[email protected]> wrote: > On 05/28/2013 05:55 PM, Jon Robson wrote: >> It strikes me that the skin system would lend itself beautifully to >> bridging this communication gap between developers and editors. >> >> class SkinVectorBeta extends SkinVector { >> public function initPage( OutputPage $out ) { >> parent::initPage( $out ); >> $out->addModules( array( 'echo', 'visualeditor' ) ); >> } >> } > > If we literally did this (there was a skin called vectorbeta, that you > just chose in the menu), it would cause various problems: > > 1. The CSS classes wouldn't work (i.e. .skin-vector).
Note true - skin-vector class could easily be added using addToBodyAttributes > 2. It would break conditional scripts (skinScripts/skinStyles) and user > scripts (User:Example/vector.js). I'm pretty sure the skin could be modified to load these also but feel free to prove me wrong. > 3. We would have to do the subclass for every supported skin, for > projects that are skin-neutral (which Echo is for example). > I know most projects are skin neutral however we wouldn't not have to subclass every supported skin - since Vector is the most widely used skin I think this would be sufficient in succeeding in the goal of bringing attention to new features to interested party. > However, that's not to say a working beta system is impossible. > >> Is there any reason we don't currently do this in favour of various >> experiments and then a sudden push to production which tends a lot of >> the time to result in a heated Village Pump discussion? > > I agree it's very important to communicate before it hits production, > and an opt-in beta system could help with that. However, that's not the > only reason for experiments. E3 uses A/B test experiments to determine > which features actually serve their intended purpose before rolling them > out to everyone. Furthermore, the users we're primarily working with > (new users) are not likely to hit a beta switch in their preferences > (it's impossible for some projects like the signup form). I'm aware of these A/B tests and don't aim to change that but I think this system would address a different problem (see below). However there's no reason such a system couldn't be used for structured A-B tests where a focus group is collected and guided into enabling the skin. > > Also, some people (even some experienced users), are not going to choose > beta. They may talk about a feature before it's rolled out fully, but > they'll only test the main production version. This is true, but I think such a system would give them the option too if they are indeed worried about future development efforts. Currently they have no option until the feature is thrown over the fence which is just broken in my opinion. _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
