Well, here is my sense (not that I am not sure there is a 100% firm concensus).
The core application is probably going to remain in Perl for the foreseable future and probably far longer. However, we are working on adding hooks so that additional functionality could be added in other languages. Rewriting the entire application in Python seems both unnecessary and time consuming, but that doesn't mean that Python add-on's cannot be supported. My understanding of the current concensus is that the core application and its distribution will remain written in Perl, but with the appropriate AJAX and XML interfaces, and the common db layer, will be able to integrate with all sorts of other components fairly seemlessly. Perl adds a number of nice features for prototyping (TT and so forth) which we are intending to use for new/experimental features where we want to avoid the lava flow effect of XML/XSLT for the moment. BTW, I hope this doesn't draw too many flames but every language has its own maintainability issues. Jumping from one language to another because the language is perceived to make code magically more maintainable is a noop IMO because it is a lot of work to no real effect. The better approach is to concentrate on maintainability within the language itself and allow other add-ons to be written in whatever other languages people want. Good coding practices are always far more important than the language choice (and given the current state of the code, we have our work cut out for us). Of course, this also raises another very important cross platform bit. If you think installing on WIndows is bad when we just have Perl and a few extensions to support, imagine if you have a custom solution requiring Python, Ruby, and Java components and are forced to make sure that all runtimes are working and so forth. Hope this helps, Chris Travers On 1/20/07, Jeff Kowalczyk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- "Joshua D. Drake" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Actually (python) has been discussed. At least two of the core members are > > pro python. Python also gives us a better cross platform capability. > > That's interesting to hear. For a long while prior to the LedgerSMB fork, I > had > considered working with sql-ledger (i.e. committing to deploying it for > clients) and doing a 1:1 port to python CGI of any SL module I needed to > understand thoroughly, customize, or write tests for, and then run the > module(s) overlaid on the original SL release. > > I'm not sure it's actually worth all the effort, but with enough interested > contributors it might make for a good starting point for some of the > refactoring and test retrofitting LedgerSMB has planned. I suppose that could > happen anytime along the development process, on a branch. I'd like to pitch > in, to the extent that I can understand the original perl code. > > > That being said, I also don't see any problem with using Perl. The > > problem with perl is not maintainability, it is bad developers. You > > *can* write perfectly maintainable perl code if you choose too. > > Right, perl is almost synonymous with CGI applications. If a redesign with > modern web framework and ORM were desired, there are many good options with > Python, especially now. > > > In the end, I would expect that it is all irrelevant because we will > > provide an API that allows you to write an interface in anything you want. > > Does WSGI have any implementation/traction in the Perl world? > http://search.cpan.org/search?query=WSGI&mode=all returns no results > > JSON, YAML and XML-RPC data transfer and automation interfaces as an > alternative to URL query strings would probably open up a lot of integration > possibilities. > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > TV dinner still cooling? > Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV. > http://tv.yahoo.com/ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT > Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your > opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash > http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV > _______________________________________________ > Ledger-smb-devel mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ledger-smb-devel > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Ledger-smb-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ledger-smb-devel
