[OPEN-ILS-DEV] ***SPAM*** Re: ***SPAM*** Rethinking the Evergreen OPAC client

[steven chan]

On 3-Nov-09, at 6:41 PM, Joe Atzberger wrote:

> Sounds like an interesting project, not without some considerable  
> hurdles.  I am personally a big fan of jQuery, and would love to see  
> it used over some of the current techniques.  One feat will be to  
> undo the locally defined $ function that conflicts with default  
> jQuery namespace.
> My main question: how will this refactoring project relate back to  
> the mainline?  Is anybody going to try and keep the versions in sync  
> as you go?

Hello Joe, at the moment this is an exploration that is off to the  
side of the main Sitka activities. It uses surplus people power in the  
form of youth interns and IT volunteers that are available from a non- 
profit organization I am associated with. One of the goals is to see  
if there are any inherent difficulties in making the software easier  
to customise. I envision a scenario where a library wants to make a  
quick fix or a new work flow; they call in some available developers  
who have never seen the Evergreen software; suppose their experience  
is modest and diverse; how would they proceed? how much difficulty  
would they face? how quickly would they be able to do the work?

It is also a dress rehearsal for a similar exploration of the staff  
client. Here, the need for a plugin architecture is probably more  
relevant. Unfortunately, one needs to go through the motions of making  
a prototype in order to get some answers, hence the current exploration.

It is also why I am interested to hear about the experiences of any  
other developers trying to make changes to the interfaces. My guess is  
that there is not a lot going on, except for some making small or  
cosmetic changes.

-- 
steven chan
BC Evergreen Sitka project
schan at sitka.bclibraries.ca