whiteboard/f9/RT.txt

This file is just some random notes I'm taking along the way.   

Contents:
- Ross' thoughts on forrest
- Assertions
- Todo

********************
Ross' Mail:
http://marc.info/?l=forrest-dev&m=115558559915005&w=2

<from email above>
What Forrest Does
=================

Input -> Input Processing -> Internal Format -> Output Processing ->
Output Format

To do this we need to:

- locate the source document
- determine the format of the input document
- decide which input plugin to use
- generate the internal format using the input plugin
- decide what output plugin we need
- generate the output format using the output plugin
</from email above>

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Assertions/Driving Factors:
o) Static content should be served statically.  That is, there's really no reason to run 'webapp'
    mode where the content is re-generated every time.
o) The "pipeline" is really static (see above), even if each actor might be pluggable/dynamic.
o) All design decisions should be run through the filter of simplicity and ease of use first.
 - o) Advanced features shouldn't be allowed to compromise the ease of use of the basic features.
o) Most users use forrest as a site generation tool - optimize for that even if we allow more
   sophisticated scenarios.
o) Software should be testable so we can be confident in changes:)
o) We should try to follow known idioms: MIME Types, URI's identify resource, Representations/Media Types, etc.

********************   
Todo:
 o) Separate Jetty stuff from the task itself.  It should run as an actor that accepts "start"/"stop"
    messages.  We also need an actor that, when state=running, monitors the source dirs and 
    periodically rebuilds.
 o)