Future direction of Captcha???

Options are as follows:
...
2. Modify the existing version to address the issues that users are experiencing

Saxofan version is still just an patch to actual catpcha, and some changes he did are being incorporated in main captcha module. The main problem with this process is that he keep releasing patches with different kind of features and bug fixes, what makes harder to review the code. And besides Heine, RobLoach, myself and a few others, noone is working in reviewing patches and fixing bugs.

3. Make available alternative versions of Captcha, as saxofan suggested, his module could be made available as Captcha Lite

This would be in the counter side of drupal philosophy of joining forces.

We are tying to join Captchas efforts in Captcha group.
Maybe the best place to this discussion is there ;)

We won't drop anything, instead we will put all solutions into one, taking bits and peices from each one. Here are the guidelines:

1. Consolidate all Captcha efforts into one simple suite of tools
2. Keep the existing Captcha API in tact (hook_captcha)
3. Make the required amount of modules an absolute minimum, while keeping the API/hook calls in its own seperate module (Captcha API)

So, thinking about these three guidelines, we come up with this plausable module setup:

Captcha API

Contains the API as well as all the hook calls for captcha (hook_captcha). Contains the form collecting elements (or alternative) to show Captcha validation anywhere and appropriately implements and calls hook_captcha. This is a collaboration of MyCaptcha, Captcha, and the split up captcha solution.

Captcha Math

Implementation of the math captcha that's currently distributed with Captcha. This would reside in a contrib directory of the Captcha module and would be shipped with Captcha.

TextImage

Uses hook_captcha (Captcha API) to provide text image validation.

reCAPTCHA

Uses hook_capthca (Captcha API) to provide reCAPTCHA validation.

Using this module setup, we'd get all the functionality of all the current captcha solutions, into the least amount of modules. We'd provide the Captcha API giving the bare bones Captcha functionality (hook_captcha and the form stuff), and other modules would use the consolidated API to provide their functionality.

about #3: you separated Captcha API and Captcha Math in separate modules. I think there should be at least one simple default captcha challenge (like math or riddler) in the basic captcha module. It seems silly that one would have to enable two modules to get the most basic captcha functionality.

We are tying to join Captchas efforts in Captcha group.
Maybe the best place to this discussion is there ;)

I putted another comment at http://groups.drupal.org/node/4852#comment-14144

I'm glad y'all are discussing working together. Just saying, this is critical functionality. It worked great in 4.7, why is it so long for it to become functioning in 5.x?

To soxofaan's comment at #4... What happens if you don't want the math captcha to be an option? Since it would be in a seperate module, you'd just simply disable to module. It would also provide a good model to base off of when writing new Captcha modules. I know that when I was writing the reCAPTCHA module, I had a horrible time ciphering through the mixed up Captcha API, Captcha Points and the Captcha Math code. If the Math implementation of Captcha was seperated in a different module, it would be easy to see what needs to be implemented. Of course though, this would be shipped with the official Captcha module, stuck in a contrib sub-directory. There are many other modules that do this, CCK, Views and E-Commerce are some larger examples.

to Rob at#6, I commented at the captcha group: http://groups.drupal.org/node/4852#comment-14175

I can see how the current 'splintering' of the Captcha module has been counter productive.

What do you mean with "splintering"? Is it about MyCaptcha not being hosted on drupal.org? Is it about my patch (last version: http://drupal.org/node/153395#comment-264105) breaking to many things? is it about to many incompatible/non working captcha challenge modules?

My primary concerns with Captcha relate to it's placement (weighting) on forms. The current standard is that a captcha will appear above the submit button, the drupal captcha module should be consistent with this.

The problem is that forms come in very different flavours and shapes. You have forms with submit buttons inside tables, you have forms where the submit is deep down the form tree, you have forms with non submit buttons etc. It's not easy to handle all these cases.
In my rewrite I tried to cope with it, and it works in the basic cases (simple forms like user registration, guestbooks, comments). I'm still working on that (e.g. it does not work very well with comment forms if both preview and submit are possible).

this is not meant as a criticism in any way whatsoever

don't worry, I didn't take it like that ;) . I was just wondering

The point I was trying to make is that effort needs to be consolidated

That's why I'm pushing my patch here on drupal.org instead of hosting my version on my own website. I also dislike having to many incompatible options.

Wundo, thanks for mentioning the drupal philosophy of joining forces post, it pretty much answers the question I raised originally. I can see how the current 'splintering' of the Captcha module has been counter productive.

In an effort to try to join forces I ported the image captcha functionality from MyCaptch to my rewrite.
more info and tarball here: http://drupal.org/node/153395#comment-270126

I hope we have something now we can work on together, instead of splintering more.

cheers

just an update on my rewrite: revision 57 (http://drupal.org/node/153395#comment-271079) now offers a clean upgrade path for users of the original captcha module. (no install-uninstall-reinstall needed anymore, no more errors to ignore)

Captcha 3.x branch is here!