The project

[Derek Neighbors]

Replies within....

Bryan.ONeal@asu.edu wrote:
 > With regard to event planning being a large market (not niche) I must 
agree,
 > further more if your develop a reasonable interface and generic ERM/P
 > functionality then templates for various events could be developed to 
take
 > care of a broader range of events.  ie, a template set for 
Installfests, and
 > another set for Fundraising events, and onather set for weedings, and 
yet
 > another set for funerals.  If you use a standerd object plan you 
could creat
 > XML templates that genorate the template event, ready for modification.

I would argue that event planning is a niche market even if you open the 
doors to a large range of events.  That said, niche markets can still be 
very large.  What you are discussing to a degree here is vertical and 
horizontal markets.  Vertically the industry of "event planning" is 
rather small.  However, if you look horizontally across all industries 
many of them have to plan events.  As such there might be some 
horizontal usage to well done software.

I think tackling an ERP package is a huge scope and something bigger 
than PLUG.  One thing, if you chose GNUe you could play off of other 
work and synergies.  All interfaces are XML.  You could look to other 
developers to provide your General Ledger, Point of Sale, etc modules 
and you could focus on event planning.

 > With regard to language, it should not be an issue at this point.  We as
 > developers should come up with the requirements and architecture that 
meets
 > those requirements and then choice a language that fits.  I 
personally feel
 > JAVA is a fine choice, and while PHP interpreters exist on multiply 
platforms
 > JAVA is far more standard (when was the last time you walked up to a 
windows
 > machine that was Python or Pearl ready?)   In  addition, you can 
always plug
 > other Language modules rite into it.  I have occasion to use a hand 
full of
 > PHP and C++ modules in Java, just check platform choice mod and plug 
in.  So
 > nice :)
I agree that requirements gather is more important than language choice 
at this point. I will say that I have not used a computer (Windows or 
otherwise) in the last 5 years that had JAVA installed and ready on it. 
  So I have walked up to exactly the same number of machines that 
python/perl ready on it as JAVA.

 > But it may be after the design aspect is done that another language 
provides a
 > cleaner path to product…  but it is a decision that should wait until 
much
 > later in the design.

Certainly there is merit to deciding what you want to do before deciding 
on what you will do it with. :)

That said, I STRONGLY urge all to look at Sourceforge, Freshmeat etc... 
There are THOUSANDS of projects that start and NEVER get anything short 
of documentation created.  Remember the Free Software Development model 
is different than your text books and what you see in commercial land. 
While I think understanding what you are writing is important you can 
over design things.  There is something to be said for producing working 
code.  It garners additional help and keeps morale up.  Certainly the 
project needs to decide where, when and with what to code.

Derek Neighbors
GNU Enterprise