Correction: Gmail messed up my URL: http://www.ledgersmb.org/community/
On 1/22/07, Chris Travers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 1/22/07, Jeff Gerritsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I believe a healthy discussion on the future of LSMB is needed, although I'm > > concerned about two issues, one being discussed and one not being discussed! > > > > The concerns I have are about the one issue being discussed may degenerate > > into unproductive language and platform wars - although (I believe) a remote > > possibility). > > Given past conflicts, what will happen is that any language/platform > wars will cause an issue to be tabled and will eventually be revisited > and resolved. So far, the core team has been very good at working to > resolve these differences, though I am sure that both Josh and I are > surprised that the differences exist :-) > > > The second issue not being discussed (at least I haven't seen > > much written about it) is what are our intended users needs? Shouldn't > > these > > needs be the driving force behind the future direction of LSMB? Therefore, > > based upon user needs, can we not make intelligent decisions on the future > > of > > LSMB? > > You are right about this. I would just point out three things: > > 1) Most of the actual mechanics of how the application needs to work > are well defined by standards boards. I think that it is important > that LSMB always operates correctly from an accounting perspective. > Given the state of the inherited codebase, it will be a while before > this can be met. > > 2) We have a statement of direction that the entire core team signed > on to. You can find it at http://www.ledgersmb.org/community/ > part-way down the page. > > 3) Beyond the accounting bit, there are a lot of specific needs > individual businesses are going to have. These cannot be implemented > in a way that the application out of the box will work in every > possible vertical market, so instead, the infrastructure approach > allows the application to work in such an environment. Therefore I > think it is important to create an application where the community can > take it to any set of users regardless of their needs beyond > GAAP-compliant accounting. > > > > While each language has it's strengths and weaknesses, both Perl and Python > > are mature, fully functional, and have a whole host of toolkits available to > > them. Personally Python has a very slight advantage to me due to the syntax > > style, but that is mostly immaterial compared to user needs. > > I have worked with both Perl and Python, have encountered > cross-platform issues in both, encountered things I really like about > both languages, and encountered things I really *don't* like about > each language. To me, as you say, the question is what the cost is of > switching languages, given where we are now and what people are using > the software. > > While I don't think that the choice to switch languages is to be > lightly done, I can easily imagine a future where there are > implementations in different languages and that these compete (just as > we see with, say, Jabber). > > > > Have we taken a "holistic" look at LSMB and user needs? For example, would > > ecommerce integration be a desired need? > > At least one core member is building e-commerce connectors for a customer. > > > Or integration with a popular CMS? > > Haven't heard a request for this yet. > > > Or is enhanced light manufacturing a need being expressed? > > Yes, this is a need. > > > I suggest we > > first prioritize user needs and let them be the "basic" drivers in a > > discussion on the future of LSMB. > > Currently the way that this is being done is that customers are > commissioning features and we work to help ensure that these features > are as forward-compatible as is reasonably possible. At the same > time, we are redesigning every aspect of the software, and are > engaging in detailed discussions with the community about needs in > specific modules. > > Hope this helps, > Chris Travers > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
