[QGIS-trac] Re: [Quantum GIS] #3145: Dash in plugin name causes unhelpful error message

[Quantum GIS]

#3145: Dash in plugin name causes unhelpful error message
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   Reporter:  rehakv1                           |              Owner:  borysiasty   
       Type:  bug                               |             Status:  new          
   Priority:  major: does not work as expected  |          Milestone:  Version 1.6.0
  Component:  Python plugins and bindings       |            Version:  Trunk        
   Keywords:                                    |   Platform_version:               
   Platform:  All                               |           Must_fix:  No           
Status_info:  0                                 |  
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Comment(by brushtyler):

 Replying to [comment:2 rehakv1]:
 > Yes, I figured this out and renamed my plugin folder. I also removed the
 version number based on this observation. Is there any recomendation or
 best practice guide for plugin naming? I see that e.g. the plugin in
 Faunalia repo don't add version number to the zip file.
 We at Faunalia avoid dashes and release name: I think it's only useful to
 maintain available different versions of the same plugin.

 I don't know if there's a guide, but you can ask in the dev ML.

 > > The error message is for users, not for developers. IMHO users don't
 want to know why the package is broken.
 >
 > Sorry, but I don't think this a good reasoning. The error message "The
 plugin is broken. Python said: invalid syntax" has no meaning to a regular
 user. And the developer has no chance to find out what's wrong with the
 plugin. I spent more than hour reviewing my source code because I thought
 there was a syntax error in my Python code. If the error was "Invalid
 filename" or even better "Invalid filename - allowed characters are
 alphanumeric symbols and underscore" I would have fixed it in 5 minutes.
 You're right, today I've changed my opinion about this.

 If there's an useful message, users can help developers to find the issue,
 otherwise this may be more difficult.
 The message is also useful to identify strange python plugin installer's
 behavior (if any).

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.osgeo.org/qgis/ticket/3145#comment:3>
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