Alright. First things first. I would like to apologize for the delay
in getting going with OpenACS 4.x. There were a number of issues that
led to this delay, including a delay of PostgreSQL 7.1, a busy
schedule for both Don and myself, but the recent delay has been
entirely my fault, and for that I apologize. I am working hard to
change that in the next few days.
OpenACS 4.x porting is officially (and effectively) launched! Don is
currently working on driver improvements for bind variables. I am
working on the query dispatcher. Together, we have put up some
guidelines. You can find this information progressively appear on the
new OpenACS 4.x section of the site which is at https://openacs.org/doc.
The important thing is this: the main goal of OpenACS 4.x is to
create, like ACS 4.x, a more modular system where there are
significantly less bottlenecks in expanding functionality. At the end
of the day, we want to see people porting old packages,
creating new packages without ever having to check in with the core
porting group. However, to get there, we need to structure a few
things: the port of some initial critical pieces has to be done in a
well-organized way so that the platform itself can be solid. Think of
OpenACS 4.x core as the operating system for your web applications:
you want the operating system to be solid and written by the most
experienced people, so that everyone else is then free to write the
cool, innovative apps on top of it.
So, we will move this along as quickly as possible, but we will
require everyone's patience a little bit more over the next few weeks
as we get the first few building blocks in place. I guarantee that
this will be a very transparent process, so that all progress
is easily visible and can be commented on.
If you want to participate in this discussion, head over to the
OpenACS 4.x discusion forum, where I will immediately begin a handful
of threads related to schedule, query dispatching, and driver bind
variables.
