by Tim Gildersleeve.
True. If you don't configure unoconv you only see the work displayed if they submit a PDF. Otherwise you see a useless block of white that every tutor under the sun will (justly in my view) complain about. It's pointless. Anyone who has any experience with HCI would shudder at an interface design that has a large block taking up the majority of the screen "just in case". The annotations interface is hidden if you disable pdf annotations or do not have ghostscript configured but we have for years used pdf annotations - for some assignments that want them.
The new changes are "all or nothing" do not have proven stability, have no way (that anyone can show) to regenerate missed conversions, and dramatically increases load on the server to the point where it is suggested offloading the conversion work to another server for larger installations.
I stand by my early statements: I do not consider that this should have been put in core as a replacement for the assignment tool, maybe as another type of assignment for those that want it, but not a total replacement.
The very fact that it relies on a version of unoconv that is not even present in most distributions repositories is factor enough. Something that is core, should not require special library installation that adds another insecurity (if the item is not in the distributions repository then it is FAR less likely to be updated with security patches).
A tool such as Moodle should be based on rock solid stability - not cutting edge technology. I realise that it's not quite cutting edge technology but it is more cutting edge than the latest Linux distributions feel comfortable including.
For myself it's not a problem as I have been using Linux for over 20 years, but its no simply feat for some people to get unoconv working - and as for checking for updates to it......... just not going to happen in a lot of cases.
Please do not misunderstand me: I think the new assignment tool is in general good, but it breaks HCI conventions, does not seem to have a high confidence in stability (suggested to have something check every 5 mins and restart it if it fails - indicating it is expected to fail), and increases the load on the server by a large amount. For this, I think it should be an optional additional assignment type - not replace the existing type.
I am not expecting or even hoping for anything to happen based on my feedback - but that doesn't effect the validity of the feedback. more than anything I am disappointed in the direction that Moodle HQ is going with pushing such major changes with no alternatives.