Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 14:33:39 -0500
From: Ken Pooley kpooley@sewanee.edu
To: marty@linuxtoday.com
Subject: MWS, 11th of October, 2000 (#49)
Greetings!
There is a lot going on behind the scenes in the world of
Midgard. The first version of the Midgard 2.0 requirements document
has been released along with a rewrite of the documents for 1.4.
The final touches of 1.4 are being finished as David Guerizec
rewrites the Admin interface. We should see one last beta release
of 1.4 before the final candidate is released.
Contents:
Editor’s Note
1.4 documentation, 2.0 requirements, and your contributions..
– Two new documents and a place for your input. Asgard is almost
ready for public preview.
– Most of us will have to do it eventually, planning a roadmap from
1.2.x to 1.4
1.4 documentation, 2.0 requirements, and your contributions.
Over the last few weeks two new important documents have been
released on the Midgard-project.org website, along with a new
Midgard feature which, in addition to being very cool, allows the
user community to contribute directly to the development and
editing process. All of these can be found at the link on the
homepage called Annotation Forum,
http://www.midgard-project.org/topic/352.html
Jean-Phillipe Brunon, of Aurora, released the Midgard 2.0
requirements document. While those who have followed the various
discussions of the wants and needs will find few surprises in the
requirements documents, the big picture provided by a comprehensive
overview is invaluable. The document is a good summary of where we
are at this point with Midgard. There are early sections devoted to
what 1.4 is, as well as a good assessment of the limitations
inherent in Midgard 1.*. In response to the limitations of 1.4,
Brunon offers a point-by-point series of requirements that 2.0 must
meet to be successful, as well as a concise table of technical
requirements.
The requirements document provides contextual landmarks by which
progress and quality can be measured over the course of the
development life cycle. That same context also provides a framework
into which feedback from the extended Midgard community can find
meaningful and useful placement…but more about that later.
Last week, Ron Parker released the first version of the new
complete documentation for version 1.4. The Midgard project has
suffered from incomplete documentation almost from the start. Over
the last few months, though, Ron Cedric Musso, Simon Kerr and
Armand Verstappen have all done a great job of putting together a
comprehensive framework for a complete set of documents as well a
function reference which covers all of the new functionality of
1.4. Ron, and the other writers, as been working at following a
fairly disciplined work flow with a goal of arriving at a document
which is easy to use, predictably structured, and, most important,
easily answers the questions put to it. Notable in this document
are a number of contextual documents that provide a better basic
understanding of why Midgard does what it does and how it gets the
job done. Combined with a complete function reference, the 1.4
manual is a much more comprehensive document and should prove much
more useful to new users.
In both cases these documents represent a lot of work for the
authors but also the work of the extended Midgard community. A lot
of what we are seeing in 1.4 and in the plans for 2.0 comes in
response to the suggestions and demands of the list serve over the
last year. The annotation feature in the new website is a direct
response to the integral role of the community in the development
process. Annotation is a feature written by Emile in response to
the need for enduser participation in development. This feature is
an easy add-on script and is applicable to 1.2.* and 1.4. The goal
of this addition is to solicit feedback and input from endusers as
they work with the docuements. Suggestions, input, and corrections
will be considered by the editorial staff and included as
appropriate into the main body of the work.
Asgard will be available for public preview soon.
The first beta version of the new administrative interface will
soon be available for preview. David Guerizec has been working away
on a ground-up rewrite of the admin site. The site implements the
all of the new features of Midgard 1.4 but also adds a number of
new features which build on 1.4’s new functionality. A clean look
and more navigation aids should make running a Midgard installation
even more efficient. Asgard also includes a number of customization
features which will make the end user experience smoother.
Asgard is one of the last major parts of 1.4 to be finished
before work on a final candidate release is started. We should
expect that one more beta version will be released.
About Midgard
Midgard 1.4 is a content publishing tool for small and medium sized
sites. It is based on Apache, MySQL and PHP. The application and
its documentation are licensed GPL, LGPL and GFDL. This licensing
strategy guarantees that developers, webmasters, ISPs, and business
managers are investing in a strategy where they’re free to share
solutions and participate in the application design.
-> http://www.midgard-project.org
About MWS
The Midgard Weekly Summary is a bi-weekly newsletter for the
Midgard user and developer community, as well as the extended web
community. If you would like to release it or publish it, please
contact Ken Pooley
(kpooley@sewanee.edu).
Previous issues of Midgard Weekly Summary can be found archived
at the Midgard web site.
-> http://www.midgard-project.org/topic/169.html
Midgard mailing list. The Midgard mailing list is one of the
most vital and visible aspects of the Midgard Community. Questions
get answered, suggestions debated and work gets done.
E-mail:midgard@greywolves.org
Places to see Midgard in Action:
http://www.midgard-project.org
http://www.hklc.com
http://www.5fthigh.com/
http://www.linuxde.org/
http://www.hec.nl/
http://www.stonejobs.com/
-More to come