FW: HiveMind sidetrack

["Howard M. Lewis Ship" <hl...@comcast.net>]

> 
> I'll also take the opportunity to ask you: why Hivemind and
> not Avalon? I mean, Avalon was meant to be the framework 
> project for Java Apache, 
> then all didn't want it because they didn't understand IOC, 
> etc, but now 
> Turbine is getting back to it, Cocoon works on it, and James 
> is helping 
> us evolve.

HiveMind is meant to be a testing ground for new technology, stuff Avalon doesn't do.  What was
critical for my project (the work project that uses HiveMind) was
a) handle complex contributions of configuration data (I couldn't find an equivalent in Avalon, just
services)
- Needed something that was comparable, in "richness of configuration", to Eclipse
- HiveMind is more JavaBean oriented, whereas Eclipse is XML Schema oriented
- HiveMind XML is more uniform; creating objects (by various means), configuring object properties
and contributing the result as a configuration element

b) dynamically assemble central registry (Avalon requires manual creation of an assembly descriptor,
to support strict IoC)
- This is actually a long way off, but in our project, we'll want to be able to deploy (inside an
EAR) a sub-set of modules so as to speed up the build/deploy cycle
- With this comes dependency checking, where modules express dependencies on other modules (even
versions of other modules)

c) Generate documentation
- Vista will eventually have dozens of modules and hundreds of contributions; automatic
Javadoc-style documentation will be the only way to figure out what's going on

Another compelling aspect I'm building into HiveMind is the same level of attention to exception
reporting that goes on in Tapestry ... maybe more so, since its brewed in from the start.

Let the experiment run its course.

I see HiveMind being useful for at least two areas:
1) Where IoC isn't as important (you can do IoC with HiveMind or not, it isn't as strict)
2) As a layer beneath Avalon, the microkernel that establishes the Avalon microkernel


> 
> I read your blog BTW, but I still don't get why not Avalon.
> 
> Anyway, I've read your Maven rant; maybe Centipede will be much more
> compelling soon ;-)
> 
> -- 
> Nicola Ken Barozzi                   nicolaken@apache.org
>              - verba volant, scripta manent -
>     (discussions get forgotten, just code remains)
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>