A word about extensions:
Playing around with the 10954 release of 2.6 I can see better how we need to do some basic restructuring.
The modules work well as are and should remain as they are.
We should have plugin support for the control panel. These would be anything that can be added to the control panel to help the admin. These would be things that don't normally have a user side to them although modules or the user side may take advantage of them. There would be no difference in the control panel between these and what are listed as "system tools" and they should be included with the system tools.
This would likely include the currently listed "extensions":
avatars
logger
mail users
maintenance
menus
user ranks
smilies
xcaptcha
xlanguage
We would then also have the "extensions" and these would be something that extends the core in some way. These would be added functionality to the system that some modules may depend on and they likely have a user side and not much use to only the admin. They may or may not have an admin side. The current "extensions" that would be good examples of this would be:
comments
pdf
qrcode
We can look at some current modules that should be included in this as well.
Protector - Admin Plugin
PM - Extension (Needs to be rewritten to fit in here. Should be a generic mail hub.)
Profile - Admin Plugin (Needs to be rewritten to fit in here. Maybe separated into a user maintenance admin plug in and a profile module that ONLY handles profiles without the authorization system.)
There are many other modules out there that could be redone and added as admin plug ins or extensions.
So as a summary IMHO we should have a plugin system for the admin menu. These should reside in their own location. The user experience should be the same as if they were included in the core. They would be in the System Tools menu.
We should have modules. These should be as they are now with maybe some minor tweaking. If they don't have an admin menu they should not be listed but otherwise they should be on the control panel board. (Not currently there in 2.6?)
Extensions are like super modules so they should be in their own location both on the drive and on the control panel. If they don't have an admin menu they should not be on the control panel menu.
Of course any modules or extensions without admin menus should still be in the "Installation" menu.
Attending College working towards Bachelors in Software Engineering and Network Security.