David Crossley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Here is the proposal so far .. > ------------ > Apache Forrest is an XML standards-oriented documentation > framework based upon Apache Cocoon and separation of concerns. > Using a plugin architecture, various source input formats are > transformed and aggregated with other sources into various > output formats. This presents a unified document structure > and design at the output stage. Forrest can be used as a > dynamic application, or can generate sets of documents via > the command-line, and deploy with an automated robot. > ------------ > > That is 70 words. Looking at the other project > descriptions at www.apache.org/foundation/projects.html > that puts us second behind Cocoon (77) and in front of > Struts (65). > > Does anyone have more comments? We need to target the > description somewhere between the user and developer.
As a one-time and, I hope, future user of forrest, I thought I might try to chip in here. Taking David's version as my starting point, my attempt comes to 49 words: Apache Forrest is a standards-based documentation framework based on Apache Cocoon. Forrest emphasizes separation of presentation and content, using a plugin architecture to transform and aggregate a variety of input formats into a unified document which may be generated statically or dynamically from sources. Output formats include HTML and PDF. I'm sure this needs more work, but I think it would be clearer to a user like me. It is probably not as complete or precise as the developers might like, but I think that it is worth keeping in mind that a short description like this must necessarily sacrifice something in detail and precision in order to succinctly get the main points across. For me personally, the biggest shortcoming of this version is that it doesn't make clear (at least to me) that Forrest can be used as a sort of CMS replacement for managing a (relatively simple) web site, which is my main interest. However, David did not emphasize this aspect of forrest either, and recognizing that some things must be sacrificed in a short description, I decided to follow his lead. BTW, I won't be offended if you don't want to use any part of my version. I don't have any reason to be sensitive about it, particulary since my expertise in all this is very limited. -- Brett Presnell Department of Statistics University of Florida http://www.stat.ufl.edu/~presnell/ "We don't think that the popularity of an error makes it the truth." -- Richard Stallman () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments
