Hey guys, I think it's great that we're starting to have some serious interest in open-source ColdFusion frameworks, but I think we need to keep the KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid!) principle closely at hand, especially when suggesting enhancements.
As someone who's written a few frameworks, I've gone astray once or twice and it's cost me. Model-Glue has things that probably shouldn't even be there (controller-based caching, anyone?). This has cost me "ugliness" of the API in some places, higher maintenance costs, and some parts of the framework (the controller) being "fatter" than they should be - all because I forgot KISS, and got wrapped up in what my code *could do for a few* instead of what it *should do for the many.* I get code submissions for Model-Glue on a weekly basis, and I turn 99% of them down. I'm not trying to be mean: they're usually very good ideas and very functional *for the person submitting them,* but it's not worth the cost to the rest of the Model-Glue community to have to learn a new aspect of the API for something they'll probably never use. For a framework to be successful, I think its API needs to be kept both as small and consistent as possible (or you get PHP). Addition of new functionality should be approached very cautiously. What I like about Reactor is a lot of what I like about Model-Glue: you barely even need to read the manual to use it effectively, because things just make sense (if you understand why you're using the framework and what it provides to begin with). The more that gets added to it, the less true this becomes. I'm working on Model-Glue Unity (2.0) right now, and KISS literally keeps me awake at night. There's something I want it to accomplish, and while I have all the tools and the code in place, it's requiring an extra level of complication not present in Model-Glue 1.x and it really, really worries me. I've spent five times as much time thinking about how to make it easy than I have getting the thing to work (I'll blog about that later today). -Joe -- Get Glued! The Model-Glue ColdFusion Framework http://www.model-glue.com
