Last week I was training, and it's only now that I've caught up with myself sufficiently to make some comments on the experience.
One of the things I love about training is that the attendees always find new and interesting ways to break the hands-on tutorials I set them. Last week's experience actually showed up some interesting weaknesses in the Apache Cocoon framework as a side-effect. For example, if the namespace is incorrect in a source file, don't expect to get a meaningful error from Cocoon. Similarly, the lack of DTDs or XSchema / Relax-NG Schemas makes it incredibly difficult to validate your content. Fixing these issues would make Cocoon far more usable for a fair number of people.
Another aspect of training that is enjoyable is watching people hit the "Eureka! moment" ... where they realise the power or flexibility or sheer cunningness of a particular feature, and have their horizons widened as a result. There always seems to be different moment for each group of people. For some, it's the simplicity of flowscript (which happened this week with another potential customer, when they realised Cocoon's flow control was no more difficult than their expensive workflow engine's language). For others, it's that generators can be pipelines and don't need to be real resources. Some are bowled over by the power of the forms framework. My personal eureka moment (complete with hysterical laughter) was understanding the power of cforms bindings.
It's humbling to come away from delivering three days of intensive Cocoon material only to realise I barely scratched the surface of what it can do. I spend so much time up close and personal with very specific features that I rarely get a chance to step back and look at it as a whole. When I do, like last week, it's breathtaking.
Another interesting thing to come out of the last couple of weeks (both training and with potential customers) is to find out that companies out there really are paying attention to licensing issues, and are clued-up and concerned about GPL vs. ASL vs. roll-your-own. The ASL's business-friendly terms are a real winner with most people, whilst the GPL is often considered a blight of nightmare-inducing proportions. I think we'll all be happier if Harmony can help us work together better.
Posted by savs at May 20, 2005 11:19 PM