<decloak/>
(it's sad the number of lists I lurk on)
Just thought I'd throw in a few points..
- Forrest is *purely* a documentation tool. It is comparable to Maven's
xdoc plugin, not Maven itself. Compared to the xdoc plugin, it is
bigger, slower, more powerful. Running Forrest feels like firing a
BFG2000 in Quake. Slow build-up, WHOOMPH, casualties everywhere. If
you don't kill yourself, the effects can be impressive.
- Forrest does not assume responsibility for the whole website, just the
parts it renders. So a javadoc link would be added to the menu, but
whatever calls Forrest would have to also call Javadoc.
- Forrest has fine-grained PDF generation (per page or per set of
pages), so you could partition off a section (the user manual for
example) and generate a PDF (or one-page HTML) for just that section.
- Forrest's Maven plugin is mostly unused and probably broken (it's in
Forrest's JIRA if anyone wants to play).
- Forrest is massive (13Mb of Cocoon jars) and command-line rendering
relatively slow. Implies that even if the plugin worked,
'site:generate' could not be a commonly invoked goal.
- Slowness of command-line rendering is irrelevant for daily editing,
because:
- Most people would not need Forrest to develop docs. Forrest
completely separates content from presentation, with strong and
stable contracts between (DTDs). Doc writers can just write XML
content, and if it validates, safely check it in. Rendered results
can be viewed (and committed to jakarta-site) through an online
service like http://forrestbot.cocoondev.org.
- Forrest has a built-in Jetty server, so for writers wanting visual
feedback, edited pages can be rerendered instantly with Cocoon.
- *Lots* of stuff (charting, scripting etc) is possible with Cocoon but
isn't in Forrest until we find a half-decent use-case. Wiki rendering
is so that you can integrate a Wiki's text files into a Forrest-built
site: http://www.apache.org/~jefft/forrest/samples/wikirenderer-site/
The latest thing to be pulled in from Cocoon is Lucene searching.
--Jeff
(Forrest developer / BFG vendor)
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