Forum OpenACS Q&A: How would you learn OpenACS

Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 07/17/02 03:47 PM

We need training materials for new people so they quickly learn to
change functionality within the OpenACS or add new one to fit their
needs. How would you guys do it, which steps should be taken, what are
the first exercises one needs to learn ?

2: Response to How would you learn OpenACS (response to 1)

Posted by Marc Spitzer on 07/17/02 06:11 PM

The notes app seems to be a good start, it is starting to make sence to me anyway. It is oracle specific and it would/will help me if there was more postgress specific examples in the documentation. I have been looking at the postgres files but then you have to map oracle to postgress and that can be a little confusing when you are learning postgres and do not know oracle. I have noticed this for a lot of the acs docs also.

One more thing that would be good is a short tutorial on how to find all the documentation, something like 'man man'

thanks

3: Response to How would you learn OpenACS (response to 1)

Posted by Jun Yamog on 07/17/02 07:01 PM

Also maybe we should let the doc be viewable before you install a package. Right now you have to install a package in order for you to see the doc. What if you just wanted to know what this package does? I guess its possible to just go to the file system. But I think a lot will expect that its there on the web.

4: Response to How would you learn OpenACS (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 07/17/02 07:52 PM

Jun ... sometimes the simplest ideas that are blindingly obvious yet never occur to anyone are the best. Your idea is one of those. I think it is a *great* idea. There's already a "description" field for the package that's in the APM but there's no link to display it on the list of packages you get when you install packages. This makes it invisible to the user at the time they probably most want to see it.

We perhaps could have two links, one to the brief description (it is meant to be a paragraph or two) and another to the complete documentation?

5: Response to How would you learn OpenACS (response to 1)

Posted by Torben Brosten on 07/17/02 10:16 PM

Marc, I'm working on a comprehensive "man man" right now...

Don, Jun, I look forward to those links being added!

6: Response to How would you learn OpenACS (response to 1)

Posted by Jun Yamog on 07/18/02 08:43 AM

Alright guys... I felt the itch... also I miss tcl with all this java. Fired up OACS again... edited packages/acs-core-docs/www/index.adp. Now /doc will show the docs of Uninstalled Packages. The file is now at SDM. Sorry guys I still don't know how to make a patch.

Anybody can point me how to make patch for OACS? Is there a standard? Atleast now I use the SDM but maybe it would be better if I can use it properly.

The work is quick and dirty. But it gets the job done, since the spec file are read from the file system it affects the page load. One small step to make it easier of newbies on OACS.

While also doing it made me realize that we need to standardize on .tcl and .adp pair. I stole that code from acs-admin/www/apm/packages-install.tcl which was all tcl and I edited acs-core-docs/www/index.adp which was all adp. Gosh we really need to clean up aDs code. Is someone taking notes of the little things that we REALLY REALLY need to do in 4.6? I propose a small task. Make it a standard to use .tcl and .adp on all www/ files.

7: Response to How would you learn OpenACS (response to 1)

Posted by Roberto Mello on 07/18/02 05:43 PM

Hmm, I should've mentioned this a few days ago when I did it, but I did kind of the same as Jun wrt the packages descriptions and name, and had the intention of making it be linked from the core docs too. Jun, I'll take a look at your acs-core-docs file and possibly commit it.

You can see it at http://208.184.248.90/packages/package-list (this is the openacs.org site that we are getting ready for LinuxWorld). While doing that (this was also a quick and dirty thing that I'll make better) I noticed that many packages have no or crappy summary and descriptions.

For example, ETP has "Nothing Yet". ACS Service Contract, an important piece of the infra-structure has nothing at all. And several others. I agree with Lars that we should be committing resources to cleaning up the system in general, and this _as part_ of the better-marketing effort (with which I agree too).

8: Response to How would you learn OpenACS (response to 1)

Posted by Dan Wickstrom on 07/18/02 06:29 PM

Roberto,

That looks pretty nice. Something else that would be nice would be a tree display of all of the package dependencies - maybe with a selectable view to show either installed packages only or including all of the packages in the openacs package directory.

9: Response to How would you learn OpenACS (response to 1)

Posted by Louis Gabriel on 07/18/02 06:48 PM

How about having an education section like the old Arsdigita.com with (at least to begin) the old problem sets and a support forum like the old web/db. That might be a good start for a resource section for learners.

AFAIK, Redhat.com hasn't put the old TCL problem set stuff from Arsdigita online yet. Having a central repository of boot camp, problem set 0 and PS1-5 centraly located at openacs.org is preferable, IMO, than having it scattered all over the web wherever folks can find it. New people do still come along and read "The Book".

The old problem sets may be out of date from what openacs is today, but surely they would be useful to some who come along. The boot camp/PS zero, PS1-5 route would *still* provide a guided learning track for newbies....and they do already exist --- somewhere....

Heck, for historical reasons alone this would be nice.

My 2/100's of a dollar,

Louis

10: Response to How would you learn OpenACS (response to 1)

Posted by Louis Gabriel on 07/18/02 09:13 PM

Prior discussion: https://openacs.org/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0003Ps&topic_id=OpenACS&topic=11

11: Response to How would you learn OpenACS (response to 1)

Posted by Jun Yamog on 07/19/02 09:24 AM

Hi Roberto,

I did not actually write anything. I like your Package List.

Anyway the one that I have submitted on the SDM is just the ability to display the doc of uninstalled packages. If you go to http://[acs]/doc what you see no is just the installed packages on your right column. I added another row that also shows the Uninstalled packages. That way people who have downloaded the big openacs tar ball core + packages will be able to read the docs of the uninstalled packages.

I just stole the code from packages-install.tcl and hopefully if its useful someone can polish it up. The page load is slow because it has to read the apm spec files on the filesystem.

Can someone please tell me how to make a patch? Or point me to a doc? I will be more happy to make a proper patch.