Hi Andrew,
Ok, ok, got it ... 😊
I fear that both OpenACS workflows are too integrated in the platform to be useful outside. It's an advantage and disadvantage... Did you seem my slides about component architecture and Library Design?
http://www.project-open.com/whitepapers/Project-Open-Component.Architecture.ppt
It's just tow completely different things to create a reusable component (desirable) and an integrated solution (also desirable) ...
Just checked out the state machine compiler. Nice. Converts a state machine definition into code, based on the GoF "state pattern". However, we'd need more an equivalent of http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net/. GanttProject is a Java frontend for a project scheduling that could (will!) be integrated (some day...) into ]project-open[ (and maybe also project-manager).
But actually the GUI may not be as much of a problem than providing SysAdmins with a seamless integration of WF, scripting language (=> Lotus Script, ...) and OpenACS/ ]project-open[ environment. I don't know if you've seen how routing decisions are programmed in the WF those days. Extremely cryptic and non-transparent: You need to introduce a new variable on the WF-object-table and then you can route depending on the value of that variable.
Instead of this we'd probably need a TCL interface providing the state variables of the WF as TCL variables, some type of debugging support etc.
Well, yes, and a graphical environment to manage all that. Maybe a bit utopical...
Frank
