[Bese-devel] UCW: The Future.

[Sasha Kovar]

Hi.  Another data point: toonlet.com is running ucw_ajax. Other keywords:
SBCL, GNU/Linux, mod_lisp, apache2, and a whole ton of other lisp libraries.

I'm excited for more interest and shepherding of UCW.  I think it's a great
framework and I'd love to see it continue to develop.  I think the barrier
to more widespread adoption is the lack of a clear path to getting it
running.  Having a clearly recommended branch with a good quick start guide
would have made my first steps a lot easier.  After that, playing with the
examples was fine for getting up to speed.  But I'm not here to criticise...

| 1) No arbitrary breaking. The test suite will be run and its results
| included in every commit message. the API will not change drastically
| all the time. Libraries will not be added/removed without taking steps
| to make sure things work. A buildbot will be setup. UCW will become a
| lot more professional.

Can't argue with that!
 
| 2) No reader macros, defclass*, cl-def or other 'syntax' will be used
| in the base library.

This wouldn't bother me either way.  I've been introduced to some great
utils through reading UCW's source, but I wouldn't cry if a more vanilla
lisp style were used.

| 4) documentation will be written, and maintained. Now new features
| will be added unless documented and tested.

Love those tests!  Aside from the obvious, it's guaranteed up-to-date
example code that has helped me understand how to use UCW.
 
| 5) modularization will be more explicit. I added a patch a while ago
| to allow a more 'plugin' like architecture, and this will be
| exploited. component libraries, form libraries etc will not be part of
| UCW proper as there are many possible implementations. Rather, a good
| flexible modular architecture will let the user choose to mix and
| match higher level code, be it Lisp-on-Lines, ucw-ajax, or
| what-have-you.

Excellent.  This should allow the unification of the various branches as
well as making learning and using UCW more piecewise, with less to digest at
a time.
 
I'd love to help with any small or simple tasks that come up.  Hopefully I
can find places to be of use.

Thanks to Marco, Drew, Attila, and everyone else who helped with UCW!
Sasha