Mark, A few responses inline.
On 5/10/2011 10:51 AM, Mark Diggory wrote: > Hmm, so you would favor a custom installer that we would have to put > more resources into maintaining rather than a tried and true build > tool thats got tons of documentation, tutorials and uptake? Doesn't > this result in even more additional training and complexity? Do you > not expect that there are more developers in the world with > experience using Maven then there are in DSpace? > > I think you need to ask the question, "who" is saying they want a > simple installer, is it a developer, a system admin or is it a > curator/repository manager? What should the technical background be > developing DSpace and what should there technical background be for > installing DSpace. TBH, if you choose one approach you risk excluding > the others and we should be cautious about that. I say this from > experience because we do have much more complex cases than a simple > installer will ever be able to support, we have cases where we have > multi-stage, multi-tiered, multi-tenant dspace enterprise platforms > with webui developers redeploying webapplications remotely, we will > be very cautious of any solution that may impact this. In this > regard, such an installer needs to be itself "one-off" or an separate > module/tool from the default build process. Actually, if you look at the activity on 'dspace-tech' since 1.7.0 was released, you'll see a large number of questions about problems installing/compiling/setting up DSpace (especially revolving around Maven or Ant frustrations -- either it's not building properly, or Ant isn't copying files properly, etc). So, I'd actually say *many* people seem to be experiencing frustration with the current install/compilation process, and the more we ignore those frustrations the more DSpace will turn into a tool that only knowledgeable Java Developers will understand and be able to install easily. I think it's also worth pointing out that not all DSpace users are *developers* or even have developers on staff. Suppose we compare our DSpace installation processes to that of Confluence, which is another Java based web application using Maven. Confluence doesn't require that you need to know/understand Maven or Java in order to *install* it. However, if you want to *develop* plugins for Confluence, it does require more Maven/Java knowledge (obviously). We should be thinking about similar ways to ease usage of DSpace. To install DSpace we shouldn't require Java or Maven (or Ant) knowledge. Obviously though, if you want to develop plugins/addons or improve DSpace we may need to still require that you understand Java, Maven, etc. - Tim ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay _______________________________________________ Dspace-devel mailing list Dspace-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-devel
