On 22 Nov 2005, at 21:16, Dave Howorth wrote:
Dave,
Interesting comments. I've nearly finished
Maypole::Manual::Cookbook::Basics, so this is fairly close to the
middle of my brain at the moment.
I've already commented on the need for an index.
I'm not sure of the best way to /enforce/ the best way to document
Maypole in the best possible way, but I do have some ideas which I
will present when the crystals are bigger.
remaining comments inline.
Hmm, but then ...
BeerDB->config->{loader}->relationship($_) for (
"a brewery produces beers",
"a style defines beers",
"a pub has beers on pubs_to_beers");
... just doesn't read as well does it? Perhaps it's better to
encourage
all users to frequent the type of pubs that DO have handpumps :)
I think that CDBIL::Relationship is a bit of a dead duck (in the same
way that any linguistic AI is a dead duck). In theory it's nice that
the computer can understand what you write in sort-of English, but
natural language has too many edge cases, so it falls apart quickly.
I think CDBILR should be expurgated from the docs to be honest, so
that it is clear that using it is at the Owner's Own Risk(TM).
What I would have liked when I started was a meaty
explanation about the CGI and mod_perl concepts that Maypole uses (or
even a pointer to a good tutorial). I already knew TT, but didn't (and
still don't) know anything about mod_perl. That sometimes makes
some of
the explanations in Maypole's manual less than clear. Like 'requests'
for example :)
I use mod_perl for Maypole, and Apache::Registry, and for some
slightly exotic authentication stuff (http://crcproject.uow.e. I
still don't have a proper understanding of how state is maintained,
and the overhead associated with maintaing state. I suppose this
means that I understand the implications of a stateless protocol.
Should we assume that as a prereq?
Dave's comments are very useful. When I started with Maypole, 6
months ago, I'd already decided on mod-perl because I wanted
something that would scale, was open source, and wasn't php, and
definately hadn't anything to do with Java.
It's still been pretty hard yards though, although at this stage I
think things are OK. M::M::C::Basics explains how the whole thing
works in a more-or-less platform agnostic way (although I'm wedded to
mysql for now, but that's easily changed by referring to the Maypole
test suite).
So I spent a couple of days reading about mod_perl. To be honest
these days that means that I do 'sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl restart'
frequently, and read the tests for anything that uses the Apache::
namespace before I start programming.
But I still find it confusing enough to be able to write a relatively
idiot proof set of docs, for it, but it would be good if I had to
explain WTF to someone else. Would this be useful? Would probably
have to be done by IRC or skype unless there's someone reading this
list in Wollongong. If there is somenone nearby, ping me.
Maybe Maypole::Manual::Cookbook::Technology to explain the difference
between the mod_perl and cgi approaches and any other approaches?
The templating engine isn't such a big deal IMO - once you know to [%
USE dumper %] or equivalent that is. Although users should be told
that dev usually tends towards TT, but if you're familiar with any
similar templating engines, you should be right, although if it isn't
Mason you'll need to write (and release) your own View. I've
proabably used ... 2--5 pages of the TT book thoroughly, and skimmed
through ... at most 25% of the book on the train, and I know enough
to keep me going.
I don't really understand or care what MVC delivers to me, all I care
about is that there's a whole heap of stuff implemented that I would
otherwise have to care about if it wasn't. Are there any key MVC
concepts that I need to be explained to help developers get going
quicker, or should they just try to implement the whole thing by hand
and grok it that way?
cheers
--
kd
http://totaldatasolution.com
-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by the JBoss Inc. Get Certified Today
Register for a JBoss Training Course. Free Certification Exam
for All Training Attendees Through End of 2005. For more info visit:
http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7628&alloc_id=16845&op=click
_______________________________________________
Maypole-devel mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/maypole-devel
