I've got a long list, most of the stuff Adam has already touched upon. My biggest issue is to divorce Plum code generation from .NET, so that we can bring in some Mac folk. I know you can use the framework without the Plum IDE, but most folks won't. I personally am not using the Plum IDE very much anymore if at all. I have been slowly creating templates/snippets in Eclipse that allow me to dump the pages, etc. But I have been using the framework a long time. The lure of the visual IDE will attract adopters.
This might be a tall order, because the Churvii are entrenched in .NET. But the plum project file is XML, and if you adopted Flex2 or Apollo as the IDE for the code generator, you would have a cross platform development tool. I have been 'playing' with Flex a little, and some of that stuff is amazing. That would be one option.
I would also like to see plugin points where we could alter the code generation. Adam has touched on this. I we could make the framework more extensible without hacking it, then folks could share their alterations
But before we go hog-wild I think it is important to find out how many of us there still are, and make sure the Adam and David want to continue with this. If they don't, then none of it matters. I don't want to get all ramped up and start evangelizing, building things, blogging, etc., until I am sure we are going somewhere. We are all busy enough as it is. But if there are enough of us still around, I would like to convince the Churvii that it make sense to continue.
Good to hear from you.
The ability to use loops and conditional logic within Plum forms tags.
Better "field sections" and layout options.
Adding a few steps to the set up process so the application that one starts with looks more like "your app" and less like a plum app. choosing a default image for the header, providing company info for page header comments ect. This would make it much more obvious to first timers how much the framework/set-up provides for them.The IDE would be much more useful if we could have the generated pages order the form fields using a field in the database called fieldOrder or some similar very specific name, the IDE could default to the current A-Z ordering if that specific field does not exist. That would really give a big boost to initial coding. Right now, with ordering A-Z, it almost as much work to reorder all the fields as it is to type them all out.What kind of changes did you have in mind Jeff?It might be helpful, for a start, if we compared the "hacks" we have made...this would point to improvements that could be made.Mark
[Mark Fuqua]-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Aaron Longnion
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 8:57 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [plum] Show of HandsI'm interested! (though with a full-time job in an enterprise shop, and a 2-month-year-old, I can't promise much help).
One of the most common real-world CF development challenges out there is Legacy Code: bastardized Fusebox 2/3/4 codebases full of "working" CF 4/5-style code that needs to be re-factored into something scalable and robust (preferably making intelligent use of CFCs and CustomTags... elegantly, like the way Plum does so well)... without starting from scratch. If we could come up with a strategy to market PLUM as a framework that let's developers easily and smoothly transition from Legacy spaghetti code to well-documented, componentized PLUM code, then I think we'd be on to something. We'd stand out.
Until then, PLUM will only be used by a few adventurous folks.
( and I'd love to get my hands on the BD .NET version of PLUM ;-)
Aaron Longnion
HomeAway.com
On 8/29/06, Jeff Fleitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Hey folks,
Can I get a show of hands of those of you on the list that still actively use Plum to develop applications (Adam and David, you don't count ;)? Is anybody interested in seeing another version?
Adam mentioned several months ago that there would be another version and was looking for volunteers to help with the tasking. If enough people are interested, I think we should take him up on it.
I still use Plum for all my development, even though I have been experimenting with Fusebox, ModelGlue, Ruby on Rails, and a little DotNet, and a little Flex over the past 6-8 months. I am an independent developer working on department-level applications, not working on an Enterprise team, and I find that Plum just fits better for what I do than all the Enterprise OOP frameworks out there. It is a testiment to the foresight and skill of Adam and David that I find Plum more than relevant still. While Plum offers so much out of the box, there is still room for improvement and some bug fixes. And we need to reach out to our non-Windows bretheren to try to get more traction and momentum, or move on to other environments. I personally would like to see Plum flourish, and so I am posting this message.
I was recently going over the mailing list archives, and was amazed at how active we were as a community only a year ago. Now it is like a ghost town. I for one would like to see Plum resurrected and get some community involvement going so we can remain relevant.
I have some ideas for enhancements, and I'm sure those of you that still use Plum do as well. But before we put the cart before the horse - is anybody interested?
--
v/r,
Jeff Fleitz
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Aaron Longnion
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
512-470-1211
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v/r,
Jeff Fleitz
