Having started the thread, I would be cowardly indeed if I did not offer my time. But being a newbie, my efforts are probably best focused on vetting the implemented solution, rather than writing it. (I just don't know enough about all this stuff yet to contribute much there.)
Jefficus ----- Original Message ----- From: "Van Riper, Mike" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Struts Users Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 11:56 AM Subject: RE: [OT] Learning Curve Management or Confusions of a Newbie > I think the Java Tutorial "trail" approach would be a good fit for this: > > http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/reallybigindex.html > > For example, there already is a "Creating a GUI with JFC/Swing" trail: > > http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/index.html > > Similar to this in concept, there could be a "Building a webapp with Struts" > trail. Granted, this may not belong in the "reallybigindex" maintained by > Sun because Struts is under the Apache umbrella. However, it might be time > to setup a "reallybigindex" for an online Apache Tutorial comprised of > trails similar to the way trails are used in Sun's online Java Tutorial. > > Specifically with respect to learning Struts though, there is already a > significant amount of online learning material to be found directly or > indirectly from here: > > http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/learning.html > > Still, I do see the value in having trails that organize some of the online > information in various trails to follow through this wealth of information. > I'm not sure how to go about initiating such a project at Apache, but, I am > willing to volunteer some time to contribute to the creation of a "Building > a webapp with Struts" trail. Does anyone else think this would be a good > idea? Anyone else interested in volunteering some time to build a Struts > trail? If there is enough interest, I would be glad to setup a separate > mailing list for further discussion among interested volunteers on creation > of this trail. > > Thanks, > Mike Van Riper > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Simon Kelly [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 1:01 AM > > To: Struts Users Mailing List > > Subject: Re: [OT] Learning Curve Management or Confusions of a Newbie > > > > > > Jeff you are not alone in this. I've been at this for six > > months and have > > gone through pretty much the same set of problems. The thing > > with what you > > are suggesting (and this is only my opinion) is, "Who will do > > it *AND* look > > after it?". The trouble is (and I have found this through > > searching the > > net) the shear volume of papers, documents, examples and > > postings (150+ per > > day) that would have to be referenced and collected to make > > this of any use > > to people. And I have to say, I DO NOT want the job :-) > > > > Cheers > > > > Simon > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Jeff Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: "Struts Users Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 9:05 AM > > Subject: [OT] Learning Curve Management or Confusions of a Newbie > > > > > > I have to confess, I'm a newbie. I've been a C/C++ programmer > > for 20 years, > > but after dinking around for a few months with ASP, VBScript, > > PHP and a few > > other technologies, I decided that Java was the language to > > build my web > > apps in. > > > > A month ago I was completely cold. Didn't know the first > > thing about any of > > this stuff. But I knew I wanted to learn it, so off I went, > > marching into > > the high weeds. First I had to learn Java. Then came servlets > > and JSPs and > > Tomcat. And along that path I also had to absorb Ant. And > > JUnit. And Log4J. > > And then there was a bunch of time lost exploring > > NetBeans/Eclipse/WebSphere > > before settling on JEdit as my environment of choice. > > > > Then came Struts, and all the various taglibs. An experiment > > with Cayenne. > > And Cactus. And god-knows what else I've explored. > > > > And through it all, I am continually amazed at the strength > > and breadth of > > the resources and support available. And equally frustrated > > by it. I can > > never remember where I saw a particular bit of information. So when I > > finally learn enough to understand what Ted was talking about in his > > monograph on Connection Pooling, I can't remember where I saw it. > > > > And when I want to learn enough about EJBs to figure out if I > > need to care > > about them, or if they are relevant to my planned project, I > > have to wade > > through another day of voluminous coverage before I have > > enough of a handle > > on what they are to make some intelligent guesses about where > > to look next. > > > > My point is that I believe the Apache/Java/Struts/... > > universe is quickly > > reaching a point where its very breadth is becoming a barrier > > to entry for > > people who don't have a couple of months to devote to bootstrapping > > themselves. > > > > Is there any thought being given to creating a higher-level resource > > interface that could serve as a single point of reference for > > all things > > Apache? (I realize that "all things java" would be going way > > too far.) As a > > simple solution, if every document in the Apache > > infrastructure had a meta > > tag that listed the questions answered by the document, then a very > > powerful, automated FAQ could be maintained. And such a > > system would make it > > much easier (I believe) to find things quickly than simply > > searching the > > site for key words. > > > > This may not be the best (or only) solution, but I do believe > > that for all > > the very specific support and discussions there are, there is > > really very > > little over-view material to assist newcomers or people looking for > > information outside of their core area. > > > > Or maybe I'm the only one who feels overwhelmed by it all. :-) > > > > Jefficus > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
