I do, but need to clear up some time. But I have a few items.
On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 3:52 PM, Jason Porter <[email protected]>wrote: > Good feedback, thanks Dan. I can work on improving along those lines. > > Anyone else have ideas or a +1 for what Dan suggests? > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Aug 19, 2011, at 15:44, Dan Allen <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 04:17, Jason Porter < <[email protected]> > [email protected]> wrote: > >> I would greatly appreciate feedback people have for the items in >> <https://github.com/LightGuard/seam_site_awestruct/tree/develop/tutorial> >> https://github.com/LightGuard/seam_site_awestruct/tree/develop/tutorial. >> They will be the base for our getting started guide for Seam 3. The pages >> are backed by an example that can be checked out and built (possibly broken >> right now, I haven't tried to build / run it for a while). >> >> > Jason, there's a lot of great content in this tutorial so far. I like that > you cite the motivation for each snippet rather than just saying "paste this > code". For instance, you do a nice job explaining the purpose of the BOM and > the need for the Java EE APIs as a provided scope dep. I also like that you > forewarn the developer of potential missteps to prevent them from tripping > up early on and getting discouraged. > > I would like to see the tutorial be more development-oriented rather than > configuration-oriented. At first glance of the index, we see that the > tutorial is structured based on the activation of Seam modules (i.e., > configuration). Each section begins with dependency configuration, followed > by configuration for activating features of Java EE or a Seam module. As a > reader, I'm looking at this saying "wow, all I'm doing is configuring > stuff"...and that leaves it being very dry. I don't think this is the right > way to structure it. > > (To cite a very specific example, showing the configuration for the > transaction interceptor in beans.xml is way too premature. That should be > added once we visit persistence the first time). > > So we are still stuck in the "I can tell you everything you'll need to > setup so that you can code" mentality. Rather, what we want is, "I want to > write code, stop me when I need to configure something so I can continue > writing code." and "How am I doing?" We need to feed the reader those > rewards and assurances. > > What I like about the play framework tutorial is that it focuses on adding > some code, configuring it to run, then seeing the result. To get there with > this tutorial, here is the general idea of the structure I would propose: > > - Starting the project > (create an alternative version of the first chapter for starting the > project using Seam Forge) > - Creating your first pages with pretty URLs > - Querying the database and displaying the results > - Authenticating a user > - Handling errors gracefully > - Writing integration tests > - ... > > Then you just cover the configuration as it comes along. Take it in stride. > If a developer wants to see just the instructions for how to activate a Seam > module, that's what the reference guide is for. Here we need to be in a > flow. You should try to show code first, then show the configuration to > activate it (unless you need the API deps, then maybe switch it) and > finally, tell them how to run the application at that stage. > > For instance, I want to see what's in conferences.xhtml. Maybe at first, > it's just a shell since we haven't queried the database. So we just have > placeholders where the data will be. But at least the user can run it and > see that the pretty URLs are working. > > If you want, at the very beginning of each section you can mention which > modules will get used, and which ones will be activated for the first time. > Something like: > > "In this section, we'll setup Seam Faces and use it to map URLs to JSF > views. We'll also use more features of Seam XXX that you configured in the > last section." > > I think you can re-purpose the existing content into this new structure > rather easily. > > Let me know if you need more specific feedback. > > -Dan > > p.s. I also think that this structure will make the tutorial a lot more fun > to write. > > -- > Dan Allen > Principal Software Engineer, Red Hat | Author of Seam in Action > Registered Linux User #231597 > > <http://www.google.com/profiles/dan.j.allen#about> > http://www.google.com/profiles/dan.j.allen#about > <http://mojavelinux.com>http://mojavelinux.com > <http://mojavelinux.com/seaminaction>http://mojavelinux.com/seaminaction > > > _______________________________________________ > seam-dev mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/seam-dev > > -- Daniel Hinojosa Programmer, Instructor, and Consultant [email protected] http://www.evolutionnext.com http://www.abqjug.org
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