Re: [Webmacro-devel] Re: ContextTool: A different approach

[Brian G. <br...@qu...>]

Wow, twice this week that I agreed with Lane!


On Sun, Jul 27, 2003 at 11:37:37PM -0700, Lane Sharman wrote:
> ...
> 
> Eric B. Ridge wrote:
> 
> > On Sunday, July 27, 2003, at 07:42  PM, Brian Goetz wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>> Yes, it would.  In my application's "template space", not in 
> >>> webmacro.jar
> >>
> >>
> >> Is that all this is about?  Then this whole discussion is (almost) moot!
> >
> >
> > No, I fully recognize that I need to have my own custom 
> > "webmacro.properties".
> >
> >> WM.defaults is just that -- defaults.  I don't think there is 
> >> anything in WM.defaults that you can't easily "turn off" in 
> >> WM.properties.  So what's the issue?
> >
> >
> > It's not just configuration.  It's also trying to get the magical 
> > stuff out of the core of WM.  And it's about getting some kind of 
> > "globals.wm" template support. 
> 
> I think we are getting off track by using the term magic. It ain't magic 
> that one can ship defaults, override them at deployment 
> (webmacro.properties), and have the resultant environment respected at 
> runtime. That's not magic, it is custom application functionality with 
> little overhead and efficient execution at runtime. I do not want to see 
> templates become the place of intense evaluation and build overhead.
> 
> When I ship a WM application, do I want every template to be forced to 
> build against some mondo include file that specifies every possible 
> template tool and function that i might need!
> 
> In release 2.0, let's focus on making WebMacro.properties the place 
> where application configuration is accomplished and efficiently built 
> into the runtime. This file, using package specs as Brian proposed, 
> keeps template writers from having to become configuration specialists.
> 
> I am not against a convenience global include. However, I really dislike 
> making the template space where WM configuration is established. A 
> template is a template. Better documentation is what we need.
> 
> Reengineering WM for the sake of moving configuration specs into a set 
> of globals includes? Negative.
> 
> Moving some of the defaults out of webmacro.defaults and making them 
> explicit in webmacro.properties. Maybe.
> 
> -Lane