My two cents: I agree with Ross's point above -- that Stripes is more in need of *marketing* help, rather than development help, at this stage of the product lifecycle.
I am a new Stripes user (2 months), a moderately experienced Java programmer, but inexperienced web developer. My motivation for choosing Stripes as a framework was its reputation of having a *less* steep learning curve than competing frameworks. I do not have an exhaustive knowledge of the competing products -- however, Stripes does appear to deliver on this front. Stripes is streamlined and clean. And, that is great. The last thing that I want to see is product bloat through incorporation of new, possibly unnecessary features. I have two suggestions and one bigger picture question to pose. *Suggestion #1*: The website does seem dated. Is it possible to incorporate more dynamic tutorial material? Is there a simple(ish) project that can be converted into a screencast tutorial ala Ruby on Rails? For example, check out: http://media.rubyonrails.org/video/rails_blog_2.mov Easy to consume multimedia can potentially create buzz. *Suggestion #2*: Would it be possible to create an active product blog. Simple blog entries -- each detailing an interesting feature of the product -- give a public, dynamic face to the project. Possibly, regulars on this thread can rotate and contribute blog posts. An active blog can demonstrate that Stripes is alive and thriving -- possibly, more than expanding the code base. *Question*: How else can the advantages of Stripes be evangelized to new web developers? There are many people like me out there -- people looking for a framework that is streamlined and easy to learn. People that want to be productive faster. People in start-ups that want to adopt a framework that future employees can learn quickly. The key ingredient: Reaching these people and letting them know that such a Java web framework exists. If you reach these people and deliver on the promises -- which I believe Stripes can do -- the subsequent generation of users will evangelize it for you. On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:58 PM, Ross Sargant <rsarg...@tvrc.com> wrote: > I agree with the sentiment that the framework is basically feature complete. > I've been a happy user for 2+ years and for the size and scale of projects I > work on, I'd have to say I have no serious complaints at all. > I've actually appreciated the fact that stripes is such a limited & focussed > framework and sticks to that. That saves me all the time I'd normally have > to spend learning the latest bells & whistles myself and passing knowledge > on to others on my team. It doesn't make any sense for stripes to give that > virtue up in the hope that the developer activity & feature bloat associated > with that will somehow attract more users. > My experience with stripes has been that it makes the really tedious stuff > easy but it doesn't lay down so much that you can't freely apply your own > creativity where you want. I think that is ideal and if it ain't broke, > don't fix it. > So,it would seem to me that its the marketing side that needs more urgent > attention. If the level of activity on the mailing list is at all indicative > of the number of users then clearly there is an issue but for every 1 person > who decides not to use stripes due to its slow release cycle, there could be > 10 people who just don't know about it at all. > I also agree that this is a very high quality mailing list. I *suspect* that > many on this mailing list hold more senior technical positions in smaller > organizations and used that position to introduce stripes without having to > justify it to a commission. That "demographic" is probably the best chance > for growth and the philosophy behind stripes really works in that setting. A > simple, reliable thing that is easy to learn and helps you get things done. > It might not get you full buzzword points on your product brochure but > you'll definitely sleep well! > Unfortunately, I'm no marketer but I don't mind lending a hand where I can > :) > > > > > > On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 9:40 PM, Freddy Daoud <xf2...@fastmail.fm> wrote: >> >> Hi all, >> >> I have been thinking about this topic for quite some time now and, >> admittedly, have been "avoiding" it.. but now that the discussion has >> been sparked, I can't hide my head in the sand anymore. >> >> I am happy to see the responses to Nikolaos's post. Some very good >> points are made. >> >> Most of these concerns are known to the community, but the problems >> remain: >> >> * the web site is dry and lacks visual appeal. this has been discussed >> time and again and we can't find anyone with the artistic talent, the >> time, and the will to redesign the site. >> >> * development is not as active as it used to be. i think the framework >> has somewhat peaked because it is, for the most part, >> feature-complete. >> >> * my own involvement in the framework has been reduced to answering >> questions on the mailing list. don't get me wrong--i am not claiming >> that i was ever one of the main developers. clearly, Tim and Ben are. >> But, when I was working on the book, I was also developing >> professionally with Stripes, and the two combined made me very >> interested in Stripes' features. A few of the tweaks that made it into >> the 1.5 release were directly related to writing the book. >> >> * more on the previous point: I still develop professionally with >> Stripes, but have not much interest in any major new features. The >> current trunk suits me fine. Any "nice-to-haves" I consider not part >> of the core framework, and I put them in Rayures. >> >> * I fully agree with the full-stack idea. This is what Rayures does. >> In one minute, you can set up a Stripes project that is ready to run >> with Maven, Tomcat plugin, Spring, Hibernate, JPA, Log4J, and TestNG. >> >> * about the lack of developer activity: I think we need some new >> blood. I can't speak for Ben, but I think it is too much to ask of him >> being almost the sole developer. Personally, I gave my all to write >> the book, improve the documentation, contribute to the framework when >> I could, write articles (e.g. The Server Side), write blog posts, post >> links on DZone, get book reviews, promote Stripes on forums.. But now >> I am *burnt out*. As I mentioned earlier, I still answer questions on >> the mailing list when I can, but other than that, I need to just be a >> happy Stripes *user*. >> >> * more on the previous point: I think there are several people who are >> quite skillful, sharp, and competent who would make great developers >> for Stripes. I think we need a group of those people to step up and >> keep the framework alive. Several names come to mind, but I won't name >> them because I don't want to offend anyone by omission, nor do I want >> to put anyone on the spot. >> >> * yes I know it is lame when someone says "I'd like feature X" and the >> reply is "ok then why don't you implement it?" but sometimes the >> person actually says "I did implement it! can you add my code?" But >> the problem remains that someone needs to validate the code, decide if >> it belongs in the core (lest we bloat the framework, something we've >> been trying to avoid and shoud continue to resist), and so on. This is >> the job of a "core" group of developers who have the Stripes >> philosophy at heart. Unfortunately, since the departure of Tim, this >> core seems to have disintegrated. No disrespect at all to Tim by the >> way, he created a truly awesome framework and gave me an awesome topic >> to write about. I certainly don't blame him for having moved on. >> >> Before this post gets too long (too late!) I guess in conclusion, we >> all agree that Stripes needs more steam in terms of development, >> marketing, spreading the good word, blogging, revamping the site, >> developing bells and whistles--extensions that make you go "wow" but >> keeping them outside the core. >> >> Stripes needs more activity. The question is, who is willing to invest >> themselves into this goal? Who is willing to take over, for the future >> of Stripes? >> >> If there is enough response, how do we "hand over the reigns"? >> >> Cheers, >> Freddy >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> This SF.net Dev2Dev email is sponsored by: >> >> Show off your parallel programming skills. >> Enter the Intel(R) Threading Challenge 2010. >> http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-thread-sfd >> _______________________________________________ >> Stripes-users mailing list >> Stripes-users@lists.sourceforge.net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/stripes-users > > > > -- > Ross Sargant > Software Engineer > p: 954-623-6015 x2108 > email: rsarg...@tvrc.com > > TVR Communications LLC > 541 S. State Road 7,Suite 5,Margate, Florida,33068 > > http://www.tvrc.com > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > This SF.net Dev2Dev email is sponsored by: > > Show off your parallel programming skills. > Enter the Intel(R) Threading Challenge 2010. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-thread-sfd > _______________________________________________ > Stripes-users mailing list > Stripes-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/stripes-users > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net Dev2Dev email is sponsored by: Show off your parallel programming skills. Enter the Intel(R) Threading Challenge 2010. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-thread-sfd _______________________________________________ Stripes-users mailing list Stripes-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/stripes-users
