FAQ list

[Gerhard Froehlich <g-...@gmx.de>]

Hi out there,
Peter (or Donald ;)) and I considered to build
up a FAQ list for Avalon. I would voluntary
maintain it. But I have some questions, as
always, previously:
1. Do you want one :)?
2. Seperate FAQ list or one big one?
3. Has somebody some experience how to maintain
such a list at best?
4. Other suggestions?

Cheers
Gerhard
--------------------------------------------
black holes are when GOD is dividing by zero
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Re: FAQ list

[Peter Donald <pe...@apache.org>]

On Tue, 20 Nov 2001 06:05, Ulrich Mayring wrote:
> Gerhard Froehlich wrote:
> > Hi out there,
> > Peter (or Donald ;)) and I considered to build
> > up a FAQ list for Avalon. I would voluntary
> > maintain it. But I have some questions, as
> > always, previously:
>
> I'd throw everything in a single file with sections for Framework,
> Excalibur, Phoenix and Cornerstone. These sections can later, if the
> file becomes too big, be factored out into seperate FAQs. 

maybe - the problem is that each project has a different location for its own 
documentation. I would be inclined to put one in each project .. even if they 
only contained one question at this stage.

> However, I
> currently do not have the impression that the same questions get asked
> over and over again. Instead it appears to me that the "general users",
> who are the prime candidates for asking the same questions repeatedly,
> have not arrived at the Avalon project yet. Currently it's a bunch of
> developers, who are (more or less) used to reading the source and the
> mailing list. The "general users" will come, when there's documentation
> to read and/or ready-to-run applications to play with. Up to that point
> I think most of the stuff that gets written by someone is probably a
> candidate for inclusion into the general Avalon documentation, instead
> of an FAQ.
>
> Anyways, documentation - in whatever form - is always good :)

I partially agree but heres some questions I have been asked over the last 
few days. They are completely obvious to us because we work with these 
patterns everyday but they still get asked by people less familiar with the 
framework

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Who calls the methods in the lifecycle interface, does the component call 
them itself ?

A: No in Avalon (and any system that uses IOC) it is the responsibility of 
the container to call the methods. So the container would call the methods of 
all your components.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Whats this container thing, is that Phoenix ?

A: No Phoenix is one particular type of Container. Phoenix is a host 
environment for Block components. There are many other different types of 
Container. Another good example is the Cocoon XML publishing framework. It is 
a container for components such as Generators, Transaformers and Serializers. 
It is your responsibility to create a container for your own particular 
purposes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Are you insane - that sounds like a lot of work ?

A: It is a lot of work but it pays off writing a container in the long run. 
However to help you build your container there is code you can reuse. In 
particular there is the ExcaliburComponentManager and <insert Petes project 
template thingie when it gets released and documented>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: So whats the difference between all these containers ?

A: Each container is customized for a particular use. Some containers may 
provide other contracts (ie specify ClassLoader hierarchy, threading 
environment) and more than likely they will use different configuration 
mechanisms. Some may choose to only use some of the Lifecycle interfaces.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: So are you saying that some containers wont support all the lifecycle 
interfaces ?

A: Yep. Different containers may choose to implement different lifecycle 
interfaces. Some may never implement any of the Activateable interfaces while 
others may not have context information etc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
...

etc.

I could probably go on for ages adding questions like this as I get them all 
the time ;) While we could put them in the documentation it may get hard to 
find them. The FAQ could acts as an index of sorts even if it just refers to 
our main documentation.

-- 
Cheers,

Pete

-----------------------------------------------------------
 "Remember, your body is a temple; however, it's also your 
 dancehall and bowling alley"   -- Dharma Montgomery
-----------------------------------------------------------


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RE: FAQ list

[Gerhard Froehlich <g-...@gmx.de>]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: ulim@denic.de [mailto:ulim@denic.de]
>Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 8:05 PM
>To: Avalon Developers List
>Subject: Re: FAQ list
>
>
>Gerhard Froehlich wrote:
>> 
>> Hi out there,
>> Peter (or Donald ;)) and I considered to build
>> up a FAQ list for Avalon. I would voluntary
>> maintain it. But I have some questions, as
>> always, previously:
>
>I'd throw everything in a single file with sections for Framework,
>Excalibur, Phoenix and Cornerstone. These sections can later, if the
>file becomes too big, be factored out into seperate FAQs. However, I
>currently do not have the impression that the same questions get asked
>over and over again. Instead it appears to me that the "general users",
>who are the prime candidates for asking the same questions repeatedly,
>have not arrived at the Avalon project yet. Currently it's a bunch of
>developers, who are (more or less) used to reading the source and the
>mailing list. The "general users" will come, when there's documentation
>to read and/or ready-to-run applications to play with. Up to that point
>I think most of the stuff that gets written by someone is probably a
>candidate for inclusion into the general Avalon documentation, instead
>of an FAQ.

I don't know if there are such kind of "general" useres like in Cocoon
in Avalon. Most of the time it will be Software Developers who are 
developing Software with the Avalon Framework, I guess.
Naturally they will ask more technical questions (howto implement something)
as general questions (what's avalon?).

Cheers
Gerhard


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Re: FAQ list

[Ulrich Mayring <ul...@denic.de>]

Gerhard Froehlich wrote:
> 
> Hi out there,
> Peter (or Donald ;)) and I considered to build
> up a FAQ list for Avalon. I would voluntary
> maintain it. But I have some questions, as
> always, previously:

I'd throw everything in a single file with sections for Framework,
Excalibur, Phoenix and Cornerstone. These sections can later, if the
file becomes too big, be factored out into seperate FAQs. However, I
currently do not have the impression that the same questions get asked
over and over again. Instead it appears to me that the "general users",
who are the prime candidates for asking the same questions repeatedly,
have not arrived at the Avalon project yet. Currently it's a bunch of
developers, who are (more or less) used to reading the source and the
mailing list. The "general users" will come, when there's documentation
to read and/or ready-to-run applications to play with. Up to that point
I think most of the stuff that gets written by someone is probably a
candidate for inclusion into the general Avalon documentation, instead
of an FAQ.

Anyways, documentation - in whatever form - is always good :)

cheers,

Ulrich

-- 
Ulrich Mayring
DENIC eG, Systementwicklung

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