[TYPO3-dev] What is the purpose of sysexts?

[Niels Pardon]

Hi!

While following the threads about adding some extensions as sysexts in
the core and dev newsgroups I asked myself what the purpose of those
sysexts is.

I'm aware between the differences of local, global and system extensions
but while following the discussions mentioned above I asked myself
whether there is a definition of the purpose of sysexts.

I've took a quick look at the wiki and at the dev newgroup but couldn't
find something regarding this.

I found some people who demanded to keep the core "slim" and not to
overload it with too much sysexts.

I see the need for enriching the core TYPO3 package with some basic,
usefull extensions as sysexts but I also see one downside. Once an
extension is added as a sysext to the core it has to follow the core
release cycles.

It feels to me that the core release cycles are much longer than the
release cycles of extensions (which is natural as changes to the core
have a bigger impact to the whole system than an extension).

I think that it makes sense for some sysexts to follow the release cycle
of the core but there are some which would benefit from being developed
independently of the core release cycles.

So what is this all about? I think the TYPO3 community would benefit
from a definition about which purposes an extension should fulfill in
order to be included as a sysext. This definition won't be complete but
it would be a good starting point for having a detailed discussion on a
per-case basis.

Do you think it makes sense to build such a definition? What is your
understanding of a sysext?

What are the up- and downsides of sysexts following the core release
cycle in your opinion?

Greets,

Niels