On Sun, 2010-02-07 at 08:30 +0000, Christopher Snow wrote: > Matt, what was the 300 - 400 hours for?
It was Milind Parikh's estimate of the learning curve, except I misquoted. He said people should be "expected" to spend 200-400 hours to "understand OFBiz". > I think that time would give > you the capability to develop a standalone solution. If you want to use > existing functionality (order mgt, invoicing, shipping, mfg, workeffort, > etc) you need a lot more time depending on which functionality you use. I'm not sure I understand this. After 300-400 hours you can develop standalone apps, but using existing functionality takes longer? I would think it was the other way around? > I've been using ofbiz pretty heavily for nearly a year now, and have a > 'good' understanding of developing solutions. In terms of the > components, I am only really starting to get a deep understanding of how > workefforts work. If fact some discussions I've had on the ML suggest > that it may not be possible to know all of ofbiz at all. Instead you > have to know how to find the answers to the areas you are trying to > implement. However to know how to get the answers, you need to know the > questions to ask. For this you need a good understanding of the overall > system, for which there is no documentation except the universal data > models. I can take any Linux (or BSD) distribution off the shelf, spend a half-hour installing it, and immediately get SOME useful work done. It may not do everything I want, but OOTB, it does the basics. And OOTB, I can use it well enough to at least evaluate how well it meets my general needs. I can then work on tuning the system to my specific needs, or use it as a platform to develop custom apps. I don't need to understand all of the kernel (say the schedule or VM code) to get my job done, let alone the whole system. If I need to write a new driver, filesystem, text filter, or whatever, I take an existing one as a template or example, and I write another that can be plugged in. And you're right, I doubt anyone knows it all, and that's OK. By the same token, IMO, you should not have to understand all of OFBiz to either 1) use it productively, or 2) write apps (or other plugin code) for it. If that is not the case, then the system design and modularization needs improvement. And that is exactly why (I think) your work on framework independence and attention to dependencies is really important. -- Matt Warnock <mwarn...@ridgecrestherbals.com> RidgeCrest Herbals, Inc.
