RE: [Springframework-developer] Slogan

[Trevor C. <pr...@se...>]

I think the usefulness of Spring in many areas has contributed to it being
considered "vague".  Because we are an IOC container, and can run standalone
apps, it's hard to pin down.  I think one of the things we need to do is be
upfront that Spring is "built for J2EE".  It can be used in pieces, and for
non-J2EE, but that is it's main focus.  If we make this decision, then I
think it's easier to define what Spring does as a whole, and use the pieces
like IOC/transactions/MVC as "features" rather than the high-level
description.

I've had a number of conversations with my manager recently on the
usefulness of Spring, and whether it's worth the time we've spent (and will
spend) to learn it (and contribute to it).  My response was:
>>As far as using enough of it, it's the core of our framework.  It replaces
all
>>the <internal proprietary framework names>, and a bunch of custom code and
hacks.
>> ... There are also a bunch of features in the current version of Spring
we had
>> to code ourself for our projects (the difference being that they are more
stable
>>and better tested in Spring

If you're doing J2EE, you need the "plumbing".  The question is if you have
the time to write it yourself (and robustly enough).  My statement about
"better-tested" is pretty standard for open-source projects, since they have
a larger user-base.  The fact that you have more developers looking at a
piece of code also makes it more stable.  This is normal, but the difference
is that every project you use requires familiarizing yourself with the api
and developing a certain trust that it is well-written enough to support
your needs.  In certain areas, there are no alternatives, but in others
(like MVC) there are other options.  I think a selling feature of Spring is
that you can learn the way Spring works and apply it to all the pieces,
rather than learning multiple disparate apis.

With these thoughts in mind, I have a few one-liners for consideration
(maybe to use, but also to spark more ideas).

"SPRING-board to J2EE success"
"a simple, standard way to develop custom applications"
"a solid foundation to build your custom applications on"
"learn once, use anywhere"

Trevor D. Cook


-----Original Message-----
From: spr...@li...
[mailto:spr...@li...]On Behalf
Of Rod Johnson
Sent: September 28, 2003 10:01 AM
To: spr...@li...
Subject: [Springframework-developer] Slogan


I was just reading a blog where someone mentioned that they couldn't work
out a single purpose for Spring. (They were interested in IoC so looked also
at PicoContainer.)

While the blogger clearly didn't take the time to find out what Spring
actually does, I think we should try to think about a slogan or maybe a
paragraph that conveys how it all hangs together. It's ironic in that in
comparison with something like PicoContainer, which does only a part of what
Spring does, Spring can seem to lack focus. Whereas in fact it's a focused
solution to meet infrastructure needs of real apps.

Some ideas (for concepts not wording):
- Spring provides _all_ the infrastructure most projects need
- Spring addresses all architectural tiers, whether or not you choose to use
EJB

Btw my ServerSide article should appear on October 14. I'll confirm closer
to the time, so you can watch the thread.

Regards,
Rod




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