[Tm4j-developers] TMNav design

[Kal A. <ka...@te...>]

Hi all,

I've been playing with Cristoph's excellent prototype application and thi=
nking=20
about the general approaches we could take to TMNav. In one conversation,=
=20
someone (Cristoph ?) mentioned Eclipse[1] as an example of the kind of ID=
E=20
framework within which TMNav could be built. I have taken a look at both=20
Eclipse and NetBeans[2] and I can see the attraction in making TMNav a=20
plug-in to one of these. Firstly there is alot of standard IDE stuff that=
=20
these frameworks give you "for free" enabling us to concentrate on buildi=
ng=20
cool, user-friendly visualisations and topic map editing capabilities.=20
Secondly, there is a userbase for these tools already and those users wil=
l=20
have less trouble getting started with a new plugin than having to learn =
a=20
new application (and its IDE paradigm) from scratch. Thirdly, some of the=
se=20
frameworks might already have tools which we could hook in to (e.g. an XM=
L=20
editing plugin for viewing topic map source).=20

However, there are some downsides to building a plugin. Firstly, which ev=
er=20
IDE you choose, you will neglect those who use the other one. Secondly, t=
hese=20
IDEs are quite "heavy" - both in terms of size (big downloads) and comple=
xity=20
(take a fair bit of getting used to) - this makes them less than ideal fo=
r a=20
novice user only interested in topic maps. Thirdly, integrating with a si=
ngle=20
IDE is limiting - a tight integration could prevent components of the TMN=
av=20
plugin being repurposed.

In fact, I think that TMNav should be all of the following:

1) A stand-alone java application
2) A servlet-based web app (possibly using java applets)
3) A plugin for Eclipse
4) A plugin for NetBeans
5) A software library of reusable components for displaying and editing t=
opic=20
map data.

It is (5) that I think enables (1) - (4). So what I am proposing is that =
we=20
start work on a TMNav framework. I have some rough ideas about how this m=
ight=20
be done which I am trying out with a simple example of doing (1) and (4)=20
using the same visualisation components. However, I would definitely be=20
interested to here the thoughts of others on this.

Cheers,

Kal

[1] http://www.eclipse.org/
[2] http://www.netbeans.org/

--=20
Kal Ahmed, techquila.com
XML and Topic Map Consultancy

e: ka...@te...
p: +44 7968 529531
w: www.techquila.com