John and Chris,
Can't agree with you more about the need for
RAD-type tools in this arena. However, I think
Javascript is a bit too technically challenging
for most "medically"-trained developers.
We have been working on a project that we are
calling "Open Infrastructure for Outcomes" that
allows the creating/editing of web-based forms
with automated backend data handling routines.
All without "programming" - just clicking.
We have been reluctant to call it a RAD-tool
since that sounds too much like something for
the "computer-literate". But it essentially is
a RAD-tool in disguise.
The Open Infrastructure for Outcomes (OIO) is
coded with Zope/DTML (like JavaScript) and SQL. But users of the OIO need not even
touch a line
of code.
The OIO has been in production at Harbor-UCLA
Medical Center in clinical/research projects for about 6 months. It was released to
the public just a few days ago. Brian Bray was
just telling me how his DocScope and OIO
have very similar aims. We may be able to work
together to advance these common aims.
You can read more about the OIO at www.TxOutcome.Org. There is also a project
page hosted by Sourceforge.net, http://sourceforge.net/projects/open-outcomes/
You can also see some screenshots at
http://open-outcomes.sourceforge.net/
There are much more that can be done to
add functionality to the OIO. However, after
you have a chance to try it, I am sure you
will realize how right you are about the power
of RAD/development tools.
If you look at all successful software
platforms, the initial steps must always be
producing the usable / useful development tools.
Linux is based on Gnu C compiler, Microsoft similarly succeeded because of their
development
tools and developer network.
How can we be any different in attempting to
build open source health information systems?
I agree with you 100% - and hopefully working
together we can get closer to having the RAD
tools that you envision. And, perhaps
our recent release of OIO-0.9.1 is a useful
step in that direction. We cannot get there
working alone, and that is why the OIO is
released under the GPL.
I hope you will join our effort.
Andrew
-----------
Andrew P. Ho, M.D.
OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes
www.TxOutcome.Org
Assistant Clinical Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
University of California, Los Angeles
--
Sat, 02 Sep 2000 09:10:50 -0400 "John S. Gage" wrote:
There is a much, much more important issue lurking here, which I believe
has been touched on time and again in this forum but never really
discussed directly (I think). Open source at the present time solves
only one of the two major problems facing software developers: ease of
access to powerful code. This is a terrific thing that, correctly, has
turned the world on its ear. But the other problem remains: ease of
development. By which I mean rapid application development tools that
really work and are sustainable. When one scratches the surface of
software development, one finds an *enormous* amount of commercial
software written with rather primitive RAD tools. If I'm not mistaken,
Lotus Notes is written in Visual Basic.
The open source community must focus directly on a consensus surrounding easy to use,
efficient, and robust RAD tools.
John
>
>I don't know about the practical appropriateness of javascript (from a user interface
>standpoint, it's easy to abuse, and it appears to
>currently have security issues that one would have to be careful to work around, see
>http://slashdot.org/askslashdot/99/08/10/049200.shtml), but it's license is listed as
>being among the the GPL compatible licenses on the
>GNU foundation's web site: see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html.
>
>
>Chris
>
>
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