launchpad-dev team mailing list archive

[Ian Booth <ian.m.booth@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 18/11/10 20:37, Jonathan Lange wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 10:12 PM, Ian Booth <ian.m.booth@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> ...
>> I guess from my perspective, based on my exposure to date to Launchpad
>> UI development, it's the lack of standardisation that is perhaps one of
>> the biggest barriers to effectively and efficiently jumping on board and
>> getting stuff done. This tends to happen on many large projects.
> 
> Lack of standardization is a serious problem.
> 
> What should we do about it?
> 

My 2c is as follows. It's hard to have standards until the problem being
solved is well understood and there exists an accepted solution which
fits the usual criteria - fit for purpose, extensible, well defined
programming model etc etc. Often what's needed is several attempts to
get it right, but once The One True Way has been found, it needs to be
documented, evangelised, communicated and enforced. Of course, the
"best" way to do things almost always evolves over time as technology
changes and/or the product requirements churn. It takes considerable
collective effort also to control fragmentation to prevent various
different approaches being used across parts of the product. What's also
critical is good tooling and library support so that's it becomes a no
brainer to do things the "right" way. Too often bespoke or "non
standard" approaches are adopted because the current standard
tools/libraries/patterns etc don't fit what's required.

So are we at the point where such a standard for Launchpad gui work
using ajax/js/yui etc can be defined? It seems like there are enough
experts out there who can provide the necessary subject matter
expertise; there are widgets and libraries available via lazr-js etc
(but I'm sure more are needed); there is an accepted framework in yui.
Perhaps what's missing are the standard reference implementations and
design patterns people can use when they want to do something (or
perhaps they're there and I haven't seen them). Above all though is the
need for some entity (an individual or small team) to own and drive
development and adoption of the standard. It also needs the collective
mindset of the development population to not do point solutions to
problems where the standard approach doesn't fit - better to improve the
standard so as to create a legacy that benefits all.

Anyway, these are my thoughts on it.