The need emerged because we were thinking about how to implement James and we found out that servers had the same needs all around.
The real reusability of code has been a myth since computers were invented, the first name of the project was "java apache server framework", but at one point, after the creation of the project but when basically just Federico, Pier and myself were on it, us three had a major fight over something that was, indeed, technical, but now looks like bikesheding (the fact that none of us remembers what it was shows how technically important it was)
Because we are very good friends, the fight didn't degenerate, but it became clear to me that the creation of such a framework was a holy grail itself, so I started to use the term Avalon, to indicate the island (never found, some say it's Glastonbury) where King Arthur was burried.
The name was catchy and it remained.
A mythical place, where everybody would like to go to honor the heros of the past that brought us here, but that nobody is able to find.
The reason for this is found in my essay about ontology harmonization.
http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/60/
Avalon cannot be found because it doesn't exist. Why? Because, as I explain in my other essay about categorization
http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/61/
those refer in particular to the semantic web, but the same exact thing can be applied to Avalon, since what Avalon tries to achieve is the creation of a "one has to fit all" explicit semantics.
The most arrogant and pretencious, therefore abrasive, annoying and irritating activity of all.
What we all failed to see was that there cannot be a single unitarian view of the world. Thoughts and categories are not metaphysical entities that we can discover, but are just tools and technologies.
But unlike some people here tend to think, there is nothing more objective about technology, or math for that matter (see Roger Penrose, Shadows of the Mind), than say, emotions or politics.
The more abstract a concept becomes, the less objective discussion can be, no matter if these abstractions represent technologies.
Avalon is creating a conceptual reference model. In the library community, this is well known to be the hardest jobs of all. Normally every effort takes more than a decade and burns out 80% of the people and, at the end, the one with most social/political pressure imposes its views.
Believe me: had I known that, there would be no Avalon today.
- o -
Now, is it so bad?
Well, Stephen is trying to be reasonable and is backing off and I appreciate that, but if you like your bike red and I like my bike black, we cannot have the same bike.
We can go around all day saying how wonderful it would be if all agreed on one thing and if there was peace of earth and all that, but reality indicates that some of the divergencies exist because of the intrinsic mental differences of people.
Those who refute the computability of the human mind (aka AI), including Alan Turing himself, indicating in the "ability to disagree and make mistakes" the ultimate indication of human intelligence.
Now, Stephen, look around: we failed. There are different camps and they will never agree.
Why? because agreement requires trust and while some people trust you (or are willing to put up with you because they need your unpaid work) some other don't and after you burned bridges, and it's hard to rebuild them, especially if they see no value in doing so.
I see no value in a unified "one size fits all framework". Why? *VERY SIMPLE*: the concept of reusability of code was done to save time and energy, nut the process of ontological harmonization requires *more* effort than simply writing the code.
Result: it's a waste of time.
Cocoon depends on the avalon framework 4.1.5, but we are stopping right there and we'll follow our own path from now on because that *saves us* energy.
The idea of saving energy by the creation of a reference model has been demostrated to be flawed, and not because of technical issues, but because of human ones.
This is actually a great discovery, IMO.
Avalon has failed.
We must signal that to people very clearly and move on, each one of us on their own paths.
-- Stefano.
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