Topic on Talk:Stable interface policy

A recent deprecation following this process caused problems in the translatewiki extension (context https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T310017#8236113)

The guide currently says: > Developers or teams deprecating code SHOULD actively support removal of usages in code in the MediaWiki ecosystem, especially in popular extensions. This includes making maintainers aware of the deprecation as well as creating or reviewing patches removing usages.

"popular extensions" is quite a vague term here, as it's not clear what's popular. Codesearch currently shows results for many extension/skins that are unmaintained or pinned to older MediaWiki versions, so its often hard to identify which skins.

"active" is also vague here. In the case of T310017 work was still ongoing to support removal of usages but a translatewiki deployment happened somewhere in the middle of that process.

Questions:

• Should TranslateWiki installed extensions/skins be treated as "Wikimedia deployed" code and block hard deprecations?
• If not should codesearch provide a tab in addition to "Wikimedia deployed" e.g. "Translatewiki deployed"
• Could we provide more guidance about what we class as popular extensions/skins with some kind of criteria e.g. used on X site, Y+ downloads?

Should TranslateWiki installed extensions/skins be treated as "Wikimedia deployed" code and block hard deprecations?

No, I don't think so. Though we're fans of TWN and fund them, as well as using them, they aren't part of our ecosystem (and shouldn't be forced to follow our processes and all the rest).

If not should codesearch provide a tab in addition to "Wikimedia deployed" e.g. "Translatewiki deployed"

Sure, that's pretty easy to add if that would be useful.

Re: popular extensions, we used to have this dashboard for things in ExtensionDistributor/Gerrit, but it's timing out right now. WikiApiary has been unreliable for years, but that used to be another good source of data.

SMW is a weird spot in which it is an incredibly popular extension, but because development is on GitHub (requires use of proprietary software) and it has no code of conduct (and historically has been toxic/unfriendly) I would not even suggest recommending or asking people to file tickets there. I think that is entirely on the SMW maintainers/community to fix.

Overall I do think TWN is a good bellwether for how people use MediaWiki in the wild, but I don't think it should be codified in policy.