Gav.... wrote:
Of course, we don't want to re-invent the wheel, what others have got that
we can use then that’s good, but don't bolt in a complete jumbo jet just
To utilise the wings.
This encapusulates my argument quite well. Thanks.
And now to quote from the Projects main index page ...
"... Forrest's focus on low "startup cost" makes it ideal for rapid
development of small sites, where time and budget constraints do not allow
time-wasting HTML experiments. Of course, that same methodology can scale up
to large projects. Your development team does not need Java experience, or
even XML skills, to use Forrest. The framework lets you concentrate on
content and design.
By separating content from presentation, providing content templates and
pre-written skins, Forrest is unequalled at enabling content producers to
get their message out fast. This separation of concerns makes Forrest
excellent to publish project documentation (notably software projects),
intranets, and home pages, and anything else you can think of..."
A number of points to raise here .
...
I see the possible new branch being a complete implementation of Forrest
as it currently stands (i.e. with a CLI, with in place editing and with
a WAR distribution). This would be built on a new framework that
replaces Cocoon.
I realise Windows may be a dirty word, and that in the end Forrest will run
on whatever platform and will publish to whatever web server, I just can't
help thinking though that because the majority of desktops in the home and
the office run Windows, that we are missing out on a large userbase/devbase
if we don't also try and do something to help those that are scared of CLI
and the feared 'dot prompt' ($p$g) .
Well there is the Eclipse plugin. But that has recieved almost no
attention. Why? For me the reason is that Forrest cannot be cleanly
embedded within Eclipse because it is a webapplication with a clunky CLI
on the front.
I want to be able to embed the processing within Eclipse itself so that
it all happens internally, no hanging around waiting for webapps to warm
up etc.
The same would be true of embedding Forrest in any end-user environemnt.
Anyway, could more be done in this regard? What about a Windows Installer,
asks a few questions with a 'comfy and cosy' GUI and let the installer do
the dirty work getting it all installed in place and configured ready for
use?
Forrest is a framework for building publishing tools, at least it is
supposed to. Someone could build a windows installer, but it won't help
attract developers because it's just to hard to reuse the framework for
anything other than building websites.
I also think that more use of PHP both as an input and output could be
looked at.
Again, making the whole thing more embeddable as I describe would be one
way to facilitate this.
I wonder if we could weave a bit of AJAX in there too :)
I'm not sure about this one. It's a publication framework not a web
appliction framework. Do you have use cases in mind?
Ross
