Thanks so much, This was exactly the sort of summary I was looking for.
BTW, the reason I am so enthusiastic about using something like avalon, even before I completely have a handle on it, is that I've been down the road of rolling our own and it sucks! It usually boils down to everyone having there own ideas of how things should work and it ends up a big mess.
or the short version, I agree ;-)
Cheers, Steve
On Nov 6, 2003, at 8:56 PM, Niclas Hedhman wrote:
On Friday 07 November 2003 11:43, Steven Harris wrote:
When I read through docs and code on all this stuff. Should I ONLY be looking at merlin and avalon and not at fortress, phoenix, and excalibur or any of the other names :-).
1. Get VERY fluent in Avalon Framework, but skip all deprecated classes/interfaces.
2. If you are looking for a framework to serve request/response patterns, such
as web, I think Fortress is the furthest.
If you are looking for a generic containment model, such as a stand-alone
application, Merlin is your best bet right now.
If you are looking for embedding into inside an application or a subsystem of
an application; Need it now -> Fortress better bet, Need it later->Merlin
3. Excalibur Component Manager and Phoenix are mature containers, in
production use in many projects, but development has stopped, and support
will eventually stop. Basically, Cocoon is the flagship user of ECM, so when
the migration effort to Fortress (now in progress) is completed, it is likely
that ECM support will be dropped in Avalon-land.
Phoenix probably have a broader user base, and the users who have decided not
to try to migrate to Merlin, or wait for full Phoenix support in Merlin, have
spawned their own project, Loom at CodeHaus.
So, it is likely that you can forget Phoenix and ECM.
4. Excalibur is also name for one of two component libraries here at Avalon.
The other is Cornerstone. I don't use these and don't know their current
status, but I have seen Leo been working on making those components up to
date, and there has been discussion of where they should reside, and names et
cetra.
I am very much looking forward to contributing to this project but before I can be of any use I feel like I need to be a good user of the project.
Why?? Completely irrelevant. ;o)
As of now, my company is considering using avalon/merlin as the core of our next server product. I need to get a little further along the learning curve before I can make a good case so I'll keep reading and asking and listening.
Great! I hope you will decide(!) on it.
I bet that 90% of your need can easily be met by understanding Avalon
Framework (how to create your own components), and how to assemble and deploy
for Merlin (basically block.xml filestructures). You will probably benefit
from Merlin's notion of "aggregated components" (not an endorsed name), where
you can assemble a bunch of components into a new component in its own right.
I would think that by the time you really need SEDA and other mega-features,
you will be so up to speed with Merlin, that you really can contribute to the
development in these areas, and these are probably in a more mature state
than right now (drawing board).
In any event, a free advice, If the choice is "Not Merlin", then make sure it
is something else off-the-shelf, and not a home-brewn framework. It may look
simple, but we have been there, and it will be way more effort to get the
same...
Cheers, Niclas
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