Hi, As a user new to qooxdoo, and relatively new to advanced javascript, but extremely proficient in C, PHP, HTML, CSS, and a few other random languages, I want to say that I have found nothing but blitz speed of development as a direct result of the attention that 1&1 devs pay to the mailing list. Quite literally every question I have asked has been answered, and answered courteously (something the PHP world could stand to learn from...), even when I was getting a bit abrasive.
As a direct result, I have taken it upon myself to tweak some of the grammar on the documentation, and clarify things that I didn't quite understand as I ran into them. I have found that there is an extremely fast path for development and understanding a new feature. It's: 1) check the primary wiki docs 2) check the API docs 3) check the demo browser 4) check the source code 5) step through with Firebug, and in really tough cases, use this.debug() With those 5 steps, I have been able to understand even the most complex things, such as the way the event handling system actually works internally, which has greatly simplified my development. The strongest aspects of the project are: 1) the mailing list. Second to none in the world. 2) the demo browser. I found most of my questions answered very easily there 3) API doc browser. I use this literally every time I program with qooxdoo. There are a few barriers to entry that could be improved upon. 1) searchable documentation - it's very hard to find docs on things unless you already know where it is. As an example of a great service, the PHP documentation allows searching for docs on anything by simply attaching it to php.net. Example: http://php.net/strtolower or http://php.net/upload. The service allows searching both the API and regular docs, because they are combined (generated from docbook sources), so qooxdoo would simply need to implement something like this for the regular wiki docs. Perhaps adapt the API browser app and serve the wiki docs as json? The search feature of the API docs works fabulously. 2) clearer top-level organization of the documentation. Many things are not included in the chapter list, so they appear to be appendices (such as the docs on RPC), when they would be very helpful in the chapter list. 3) missing docs - for example, there's pretty much nothing about treevirtual, implying that it is either experimental or not that important. I avoided this component entirely as a result, and instead implemented a lazy-loading tree for my needs. 4) bugzilla. Isn't it time to replace that hard-to-use-requires-login-impossible-to-search-or-organize fugly bug tracker with a qooxdoo-based app? Eat your dogfood! :) In terms of branding, I heard about qooxdoo through the wikipedia page that compares javascript frameworks. Qooxdoo (measured version was 0.8) actually was shown as faster than jquery in many tests, and so I decided to check it out. I'd suggest two small things that will drastically improve adoption without very much effort: 1) hire a graphic designer to make a new logo 2) hire a graphic designer to make a better template for the website Some bigger things that could be useful: 1) provide a minimal mixin for drag/drop in a listitem and a treefolder, based on the implementation in the demo browser 2) scan for most-requested things on the mailing list (drag/drop is one of the top ones I've seen) like an upload widget and put them in core. This will cut down on mailing list volume significantly :) I want to stress that qooxdoo has been the most incredible pleasure to work with. In only 3 months, I went from zero knowledge of qooxdoo to a complex app for managing the data behind our website that uses jsonrpc to PHP, openid-based login, sync with google calendar and complex hierarchical trees with full drag/drop support, an image editing widget (upload, then resize/crop, or choose existing image from a gallery of uploaded images), and it's simple and intuitive enough for the technophobes in my string quartet to use it :). Greg ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ThinkGeek and WIRED's GeekDad team up for the Ultimate GeekDad Father's Day Giveaway. ONE MASSIVE PRIZE to the lucky parental unit. See the prize list and enter to win: http://p.sf.net/sfu/thinkgeek-promo _______________________________________________ qooxdoo-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/qooxdoo-devel
