If I needed some missing 3.x apps for my 4.x OpenACS instance right
away, I'd probably just do a quick-and-dirty 3.x style port of the 3.x
packages I wanted to 4.x. (Isn't that what Furfly initially did for
E-Commerce?) Remember, OpenACS offers lots of sophisticated core
services which you
can and may
want, but are never
forced to, take advantage of.
This is one thing that someone new to the BBoards may miss,
because naturally, developers here want to "do it right" for 4.x. But
in many ways, the older simpler 3.x style, while less powerful,
offered an easier learning curve. Personally, if I was reviving the
old training Bootcamps, I'd probably have the first couple exercises
focus solely on building database-backed web apps in general, using
the simpler ACS 3.x style, then use transforming those apps to use the
more sophisticated OpenACS 4.x services as the next exercise. I think
the same approach to buidling your own apps could work nicely as well,
for folks new to OpenACS who just really want to something working
quickly.
Of course, once you're already familiar with OpenACS 4.x than using
its services doesn't slow you down, and is definitely the better way
to go. But when porting old code, converting it cleanly to the 4.x
style is probably always going to be more work than just shoe-horning
the old stuff in with minimal changes, no matter how much of an
OpenACS guru you are.
