Re: [SLUG] Project assistance...

From: Ronan Heffernan (ronan@iotcorp.com)
Date: Fri Jun 07 2002 - 06:32:41 EDT


Russell Hires wrote:

>
>>PHP
>>
>>Perl
>>
>>Java
>>
>>And definitely use the web as your UI.
>
>
>>I know you were probably looking for more hands-on help, like code, and
>>I'd personally actually love to help as my wife is a teacher, but lately
>>I've been so busy I barely have time for even sitting down and watching
>>half an hour of TV in a week...
>
> Hmmm... this is more along the lines I'm thinking of...I don't necessarily
> want a teacher, but I'm thinking of recruiting people to do stuff. I don't
> know how, but maybe there's people out there with the skills and the desire
> (or need, even) to contribute to the Gradebook product I've envisioned. OTOH,
> there's the whole business of, if I am going to do this, where do I ask
> questions? I've got so many different things I need to learn how to do, and
> there are so many different possibilities. I want to use Zope, since it has a
> lot of power. I also want to use PostgreSQL. But there's other, basic things
> I need to know, and I want to make sure that questions I have get answered,
> because I've discovered that I can annoy people with too many "basic"
> questions.
>
> Ahhh...all part of the learning process, I suppose.
>
> Russell

I would recommend using CORBA. Unless there is a compelling reason not
to use CORBA, I always use it in networked-apps. You can implement your
functionality in CORBA objects, written in whatever language you like.
Personally, I always prefer C++, but you can write CORBA servers in
Java, Python, smalltalk, Ada, Cobol, etc.

You can then have multiple clients (web (cgi, php (with Satellite),
Zope, PMZ, ...), Java, VB, Kylix/Delphi, etc). A web browser might be
the best client for students and parents to occasionally check a
student's progress (no installation hassles), but it is a lousy
interface for a teacher who has to work with the system every day. If
the teacher has Windows, then you can use Java, VB, Delphi, Python (with
WxPython for Win32), etc. You can give the teachers a nice
highly-interactive interface that allows for batch-entry, drag-and-drop,
tree navigation, etc.

By using CORBA, you have also exposed the functionality of your system
via a "programmatic interface". If a school wants an application that
plots grading trends by grade-level, subject, teacher, etc., then they
can *easily* (and for free) attach to the interface that you are already
exposing! If you put your accessor and discrimination code into Zope
pages, or any kind of web-page, then you are not giving external systems
the benefit of your code.

Using CORBA will also facilitate team development. You can have a few
programmers working on client(s), while another team works on the server
object(s). CORBA IDL provides a rock-steady point of commonality for
the various teams to meet.

If you need any help with: PostgreSQL, Python, PMZ, C++, analysis,
design, etc., let me know. How do you want to license all of this? I
have some C++/PostgreSQL CORBA components (authentication, logging,
organization modelling, chart creation, etc.) that you might be able to
use (they are closed-source). As for coding...maybe I'll have time?

--ronan



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