Bertrand Delacretaz wrote:
(not really an RT, these are just some thoughts on a Good Thing that happened a year ago)
At the GT we had talks with several people about how much the decision of last year, to make Cocoon Forms the mainstream forms library, was a good idea.
I'd just like to share this with you guys here, as I think it has made a big difference to the project, and applying it to other "grey areas" of Cocoon might help as well (I'm not thinking of any such grey area ATM, but others might see some).
A year ago we decided to bet the farm on Cocoon Forms as the mainstream way of doing forms, and now after one year we see many positive effects: people know what to use if they're not sure, we know where to put our efforts, and yet this hasn't prevented people from doing forms in other ways if they like, as the Chaeron success story at the GT has shown.
So I think "mainstreaming" the tools and technologies that we consider the most appropriate "in general" is a Good Thing, and at the same time we must not put any barriers for people to do things differently if they like - as long as *they* do the required work.
I totally agree with this, but we must also find a concrete way to indicate users what we consider to be mainstream. As code is just code, this must be somewhere else. IMO, the right place for this are the docs and the samples, which are what people use to get the gist of how they should use Cocoon.
The ongoing effort on the docs (thanks Helma!) should take this into account. Mainstream features should be exposed first and in prominent places and alternative features should be documented as other or older ways to do it.
Sylvain
-- Sylvain Wallez Anyware Technologies http://www.apache.org/~sylvain http://www.anyware-tech.com { XML, Java, Cocoon, OpenSource }*{ Training, Consulting, Projects }
