[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #23912: Add Composer package description

[WordPress Trac]

#23912: Add Composer package description
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 Reporter:  Rarst        |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  Future Release
Component:  General      |     Version:  3.5
 Severity:  trivial      |  Resolution:
 Keywords:               |
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Comment (by bpetty):

 Replying to [comment:68 gboone]:
 > New to these forums as I am, I want to drop in and restart this
 conversation. I agree with those saying WordPress Core is most certainly a
 dependency and any composer.json should declare it as such. I'm not sure
 how you would create a WordPress-powered site without WordPress.

 No-one is saying you can build WordPress sites without WordPress, we're
 saying that WordPress is an application, not a library, and as such, it
 can't be defined as a dependency because if you use Composer to install
 WordPress, you're supposed to do so using the `create-project` command,
 and defining your extra plugin dependencies in your local `composer.json`
 file.

 This was how MediaWiki
 [https://git.wikimedia.org/blob/mediawiki%2Fcore.git/25eb7cd0ee6e57c3279b8b41ccec48fec4ada700/composer.json
 defined their package], but since you started this conversation again, I
 have to point out that MediaWiki has actually
 [https://git.wikimedia.org/commitdiff/mediawiki%2Fcore.git/d6e69d774d613e3097d7b1640540b62ec89d2685
 since decided] (on Nov 1st) that they're only going to package a stripped
 down and incomplete `composer-example.json` template designed for end-
 administrators to copy to their own custom `composer.json` file and
 customize with their dependencies.

 They even note that "core no longer pretends to be a component that is
 installable via composer. This never worked, and core will need to be
 modified in several ways before this can work." This is exactly the same
 situation WordPress is in.

 I still believe we should package an actual `composer.json` file since
 just shipping a template doesn't actually help anyone, and you wouldn't
 even be able to use `create-project` without it either, but this discovery
 by the MediaWiki team only helps support my point in regards to
 incorrectly defining an application as a library that can be used as a
 dependency.

 > Also agree that we don't want to move in the opposite direction of other
 platforms, but WordPress is big enough now, and being used on large enough
 scales that we could be the project that sets those standards rather than
 +1s them.

 Requiring a custom Composer installer would be moving in the opposite
 direction of other platforms, no-one else is doing it (with the intention
 of using it as a permanent, widely distributed, and encouraged solution),
 and it's entirely non-standard. We wouldn't be defining any "new
 standard", we'd just be the weird project using Composer in a way that it
 wasn't designed to be used.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/23912#comment:69>
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