In the beginning, there was only one cocoon distribution, packaged with two different packagers (zip for windows and tar.gz for unix and friends).
Then cocoon became very complex and we decided to create a binary distribution to make things easier. Things were indeed easier for new users to install and try out, but it was harder for them to actually *do* something with cocoon and tune it for their needs.
The fact that there is even a sourceforge project about a 'clean' version of our shipped cocoon WAR feels a little like a slap in our face.
Then the 1.3/1.4 JDBC incompatibilities came out, forcing us to do two different binary releases.
Now, in the light of a cleaned-up build system and a very-well-factored-out static block architecture and the inclusion of a super light-weight servlet container, I think we are ready to finally go back to where we started and stop releasing binaries.
Before you jump up and down and scream "no, no, binaries are easier for our users", get off your life-without-a-compiler-windows-inflicted-mindset and think that every JDK comes with a compiler.
To be really honest, Cocoon already includes not one but *TWO* java compilers!!! we could build from javawebstart if we really wanted to! (we should also decide if we want to remove pizza from the distribution!)
So, in light of the good old triad
./configure; make; make install
I propose to ship Cocoon 2.1 *AS IS*, sort of a cleaned-up version of our current CVS and improve a little the 'INSTALL.txt' doc that will suggest you to do
<snip/>
What do you think?
Cocoon is now a major opensource product, and as such its user base includes more and more people that are far less technically skilled than we are. Moreover (I already mentioned this) the power of Cocoon's builtin components leads to many people using it without ever opening a Java source file.
Having to compile Cocoon by themselves will certainly refrain many of them to go further than "opening the box" : they will close it quickly and go away.
So I'm -1 for a source-only distro.
I also think a working Jetty-powered sample webapp is a must have in the distro, since most often new users start learning Cocoon by playing with the samples and modifying them.
Sylvain
-- Sylvain Wallez Anyware Technologies http://www.apache.org/~sylvain http://www.anyware-tech.com { XML, Java, Cocoon, OpenSource }*{ Training, Consulting, Projects }
