you have to have an actual mod interface in order to have a smf apt-get.
Which there is and has been for years.
and as far as the upgrades of future existing mods, not that hard to code an uninstall of the old and install the new.
This has been possible for years. Consider why so few mods provide this option when it has been around for years.
what im pushing is a whole new way of looking at modding and the act of installing and using those mods.
What I'm pushing is that no matter how many different ways you look at it, there are certain fundamental truths that will trump it, that mod authors are fundamentally hobbyists who release something that they wrote, or they're premium authors who want to lock their content behind some kind of paywall. What's in the middle as far as mod writing goes, is minimal. (I speak from experience; I've been all three groups of modder, my first few mods were because it was something I wanted and just felt like releasing, my last few mods were essentially premium mods, and the ones in the middle, well I was about the only person at the time just writing mods on request)
Certain things just will not change.
and this in itself will mold the rest of the software to be better, totally cause of the modular design necessary to achieve it.
*shrug* You're not talking about a new way of looking at modding, you're talking about a new distribution method. Maybe by forcing a better distribution method it'll encourage the core software to be better built but I doubt it. In any case you still need to build that foundation first. Consider that Apple had iOS before it had the App Store.
if you build an environment that is, within reason, easily changed, the quantity and quality of the mods will blow our minds.
You have to build that environment first. Then you have to find people capable of writing to that level. Go take a look at the mods on the current mod site; they are not that level of coding - see before my comment about hobbyist coders.
big mods, little mods, they would all have a place as long as the receptacle of those ideas is designed to receive them.
Except they don't. Right now there is the SMF mod site. It doesn't cater to those who want to provide premium services, and I doubt it ever will. Nor does it provide any facilities other than vague hosting and a single thread for discussion, which is why so many of the bigger mods operate their own modding sites. Just off the top of my head that list is: every single portal, SimpleDesk, Project Tools, SMF Wiki, SMF Arcade, plus all of the premium theme sites. The reason is because the SMF mod site does not provide the facilities that those sites need. And I doubt it ever will (bear in mind: I used to be on the Customization Team, I'm aware of the plans that have been had over the last 2 years for the mod site. Even then, I suspect it won't meet all the needs for all those who would use it.)
have just a basic software sitting there. then a built in method to to modify it, in any way. then plugin what you want. its designed for it.
Which is what we have right now. And it's a shambles, that you can literally modify any line of code - because so many mods trip over each other. It takes real skill to avoid that, given the limitations of the current design. What's needed isn't an overhaul, it's a total from-fresh rewrite. Which is years away.
then you have a great many sites out there that are all based off the same core, but can do virtually anything.
You have a great many sites that all use the same core, and often don't do a great deal more. The size and complexity of most of the installed mods is not that large in practice.
take out the "core" features, and make them mods as well.
Where do you draw that line? Do you draw it at say the calendar? Or something more fundamental like post moderation?
make it where people in as simple of a way as possible, build the site how they want it to be.
Which massively increases the support load.
if this is made the goal, i think with a reasonable amount of care and effort, it can be made to happen.
Good luck with that. Come back to me in 5 years and tell me if it was achieved.
an array is a list of variables, a class is an array of functions and arrays, and a collection is an array of classes.
You can quote programming theory, well done. It's also utterly irrelevant here.
you cant tell me that built in that way, just about everything couldn't be changed dynamically to suit the user.
Security, customisability, speed, pick any two.
i hope someone can see the vision i have. i would kill to see it in reality.
Prepare to become a mass murderer.