Had a number of WTF moments when looking for a wiki2pdf type of Mediawiki extension. I came across Pdf Export which seemed to be what I wanted. But as I looked over the extension, the WTFs began to pile up:
- The required version of Mediawiki is 1.14, but the current version of Mediawiki is 1.13.3. WTF?
- Okay, let me download the source… WTF? I’m supposed to copy-and-paste this into four different PHP files?
- Interesting… there are edit links next to each block of code. Can I, an anonymous user, just edit this code? Ah, yes I can. WTF??
Looks like most extensions seem to be in an SVN repo, but Pdf Export does not appear to be among them. The main page for this extension lists the version as 2.0 (4-Nov-2008), but I’m not sure what that means if the distribution code is a publicly editable moving target.
I think what’s happening here is that the extension ecosystem is far more “organic” than I had anticipated. They seem to have made the task of collaborative programming as quick and open as wikis themselves. The concept is actually kind of cool.
Still, I’d rather install an extension with a pdf_export-2.0.tgz or something than copy code off a wiki that may or may not have just been modified by h4CK3R420.