Re: [mv] Preview of Akopia Interchange

[Mike Heins <mikeh@minivend.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Mike Heins <mikeh@minivend.com>     ******

Quoting cfm@maine.com (cfm@maine.com):
> Maybe it's just the impression I have, but I'll spit it out; take it
> with a grain of salt, Mike.  You must stick to your vision.  ;^)
> 
> Seems to me that the overwhelming bulk of the effort with minivend is
> going into the user interface, not the catalog mechanics/session manager
> and so forth.  Looking at those highlights, I can understand how any one
> of them might be of real use to many.

I have been improving the core as well, though I admit most of my effort
has to do with UI.

> 
> I can also say that not a single one is of any interest to us here.
> As far as we are concerned, every one of those is better handled 
> outside of what we would consider a "shopping cart".  The cart 
> system should pull info out of the databases for products, 
> shipping, auxilary information but it need have no no knowledge 
> of how they got there let alone be charged with putting them there.
> 
> We've been working some time on moving from 3.14 to 4.03, mostly because
> we wanted to stay in the stream for the catalog core.  That's been a
> lot of work because we are standardizing our "API" and custom minivend
> libraries at the same time.
> 
> What **I** want for Christmas is a separation of the minivend core and the
> minivend minimate/user interface into distinct independant packages.  

It is separate. Just don't put #include lib/UI/ui.cfg in your minivend.cfg
file and everything is as before.

> 
> I promise I'll be good!  ;^)
> 
> --
> 
> The "core" and the user interface could then be free to develop
> independantly.  For most intents and purposes, the database table
> layout becomes the common API and of course there could be some
> shared modules.  Minivend::UI might be version 7 while Minivend::Core
> might only move to 4.6 (I'm granting it **is** 4.5 now, right?)

This is an excellent suggestion and we will take it seriously.

> 
> Maybe this does not interest anyone else.  I would guess, however,
> that the more minivend tries to do, the less appealing it will be
> for those of us in the sharp pointed stick department; there are
> only so many resources that will be invested in it.
> 

Bear in mind that the UI is an add-on, and not much has changed
in the core except bug fixes and feature improvements. Try it! I bet
the upgrade is no harder than any of the others you have done.

-- 
Akopia, Inc., 131 Willow Lane, Floor 2, Oxford, OH  45056
phone +1.513.523.8220 fax 7501 <heins@akopia.com>

Any man who is under 30, and is not liberal, has not heart; and any man
who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has not brains.
 -- Winston Churchill
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