Success Report for meta-info managed components

[Berin Loritsch <bl...@apache.org>]

Recently (as in a few minutes ago) I updated my GUIApp project which is Fortress
based by reorganizing the package structure for my "blocks" (reusable code).
All the component implementations have been properly marked with the meta-info
JavaDoc tags.  The results are *very* encouraging:

* The only code changes were due to the change in package names for the
   component interfaces (understandable).

* There were NO configuration file changes necessary AT ALL.  The config
   file references the components by a short-name or alias name, so there
   were no direct references to the implementations.  Everything still worked
   without problem.

For those of you who are still living in the ECM world where you have to
explicitly manage your roles file, you should be salivating right now.  If
you have any questions of whether this would change if you move to Merlin,
fear not.  The reason I had such success has to do with the fact that I am
tracking the implementation with meta-information, which Merlin also uses.
The net result is that refactoring your component implementations becomes
much much easier, and you can play more without fear of breaking 100 other
applications that depend on your code.

I CC'd the Cocoon group because they were eyeing Fortress as an upgrade path.


-- 

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
  deserve neither liberty nor safety."
                 - Benjamin Franklin