[wp-hackers] Custom Post Types and pending incompatibilities

[Simon Blackbourn]

I strongly believe that being open with post type & custom fields rather
than namespacing them is the way to go in the long term. Closing things off
and saying "this is my post type - hands off everyone else!" is antithetical
to the whole ethos of the WordPress project.

But rather than setting up yet more working groups and discussion forum,
etc, which seems to me over-bureaucratic and unlikely to result in success,
what if plugin authors simply put the information visibly on their plugin
page, then over time 'the market' decides and those plugins that don't
follow the standard set by others will become less popular.

Clearly stating the post type and custom fields on your plugin page would
encourage other developers to use the same type/fields in their plugin (or
not to use the same if they want to avoid conflict). They could then say
"compatible with the Blah Events plugin".

So rather than having to dig through code to find these things out, it's
right there out in the open on the plugin page for all to see.

It might take a while to get the ball rolling, but once it gains critical
mass then take-up should grow. Just a few high profile plugin authors doing
this and writing about it on their blogs should kickstart things.

Which then raises the question as to whether there should be some consistent
place/format on the wp.org plugin pages for displaying this information?
(either in the FAQ or Other Notes?)

--
Simon