set of basic Samples (Was: Again - how do I make saxon 8 the default xslt transformer?)

[David Crossley <cr...@apache.org>]

Derek Hohls wrote:
> To be honest, I am not sure the Wiki is the best place
> to start learning from... bear in mind that's its a free-
> for-all site, maintained on an ad-hoc basis (at best!).
> 
> Certainly the leap from Cocoon 2.0 to 2.1.n has caused
> many wiki pages and 3rd party tutorials to date *very* fast.
> The wiki needs a heavy hand with pruning...
> 
> For starting learning, I would always start with the main
> site and use the shipped samples - especially the simpler 
> ones - as a basis for building.
> 
> If you get stuck, and the wiki looks confused, ask here
> first!
> 
> Derek
> 
> PS - If you are asking a new question, or starting with a
> new idea, its a good idea to post to a new message thread.
> 
> PPS - I can always send you my current "basic" directory
> which I add to on an ongoing basis with "really simple, 
> one topic only" samples... usually stripped down from more
> complex Cocoon ones.

Oooh!!! Would it be possible to contribute that to Cocoon.

If each "concept" in Cocoon had a really basic sample
to portray it, then we could have a self-demonstrating
application. The best sort of documentation is that which
demonstrates the concept in action, describes its pieces,
and provides the code to show how it works.

The new "supersonic tour" block would provide a good model.
It could be copied to provide the infrastructure for a
"simple samples" block.

As a side-benefit, that provides a starter-kit for people
to build their own stuff on a strong foundation.

--David

> Colin Paul Adams wrote:
>     >> Is this all documented somewhere? I can't find it (actually, I
>     >> find the whole of the cocoon documentation chaotic - things are
>     >> liable to turn up all over the place, be contradictory, or
>     >> downright wrong, or just out of date).
> 
>     David> Patches are welcome.
> 
> I don't that patches will help much. 
> I see on the cocoon developers list that people are aware it's a mess.
> 
> Anyway, here's one specific instance of something that is:
> a) Wrong, and
> b) Difficult to find what is right.
> 
> And since it comes form the Wiki section "For Beginners", it could
> very VERY easily put someone off if they weren't as sure as I am
> (having looked at Cocoon before) that Cocoon is what I want to use.
> 
> Having gone through the pain of getting Cocoon up and running, and
> then getting it to work with saxon 8, I now actually want to write a
> little application.
> 
> So I've got my transform working on static sample xml file, outside of
> cocoon. I'm ready to try to put it into Cocoon.
> This ought to be available right upfront on the documentation main
> page. Instead i find I have to:
> 
> >From the documentation main page:
> Select "Wiki Docs"
> Select "For Beginners"
> Select "Organizing your development"
> 
> And then, I find it's plain wrong (for 2.1.5 - no doubt a problem on
> rely on a wiki). It talks about a subfolder in $cocoon_root called
> mount. 
> Well, it doesn't exist in 2.1.5.
> So I delve into the sitemap (note - already I'm starting to have to
> look at source code, rather than documentation - but it gets worse).
> 
> I find that what I actually want is a file called mount-table.xml.
> But that doesn't exist either (why isn't there a default one with
> sample entries commented out?).
> 
> So I finally find my way to some java source, and find the format of
> the file in java comments (made so much more harder to read by <s).
> 
> Phew.
> Well, now I'll go and create one, and hope the java comments are
> correct.
> 
> This is hard work!
> -- 
> Colin Paul Adams
> Preston Lancashire



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