3 ms·

Continuations-Based Web Applications in Common Lisp With Weblocks

3 points by mcxx 19y ago

pchristensen 19y ago
I've taken a good look at Weblocks and I think I like what I see. Has anyone (besides CoffeMug) worked with or have any other feedback? Also, how mature/complete is Weblocks? I know it's new but that doesn't mean it's not ready for use. I'm shopping for a web framework now and I'd like to know if I should consider it. Most of the brains of my startup is data mining/composition, but I need a front-end to display those data.
- coffeemug 19y ago
  |Also, how mature/complete is Weblocks? Now that control flow is in, I have to implement two more things to consider Weblocks "ready" - more flexible UI presentation, and a default data store. The first issue is that current default UI generation is somewhat limited in terms of how much you can customize it in declarative manner, so people have to resort to writing custom presentation more often than necessary. Currently you'd have to hook weblocks to a data store on your own (some people have done that). I plan to make a pluggable system with a default store (probably CLSQL). Beyond that, people can contribute their own drivers to whatever store they wish. At this point weblocks will be very usable. There will be many little things. Some that come to mind: automatically bundling css and js into one big file instead of many small ones for performance, more declarative validators, specialized presentation for more commonly used data types, "persistant" actions (so that you can send a URL of a grid sorted in a certain way to your friend), etc. However, each of these can be implemented in a couple of days or less, so I don't consider these issues essential. After implementing the two major features described above, I'll move on to using Weblocks to write a commercial product. I'll deal with little issues as they come along.
  - mrtron 19y ago
    I like where you are at right now, and your direction. When I get some free time I will test drive it.
  - pchristensen 19y ago
    Sounds good. Do you have a timeframe for adding those pieces? It'll probably be early next year when I'll be ready for the front end of my app, and everything I've read about Weblocks makes me think it'd be a good match. I'd be interested in hearing about your commercial project as well. If you're in the mood to share any details, I'd love to hear about them here or by email (peter at pchristensen dot com).
    - mcxx 19y ago
      You can see the progress on the weblocks trac page: http://trac.common-lisp.net/cl-weblocks/timeline http://trac.common-lisp.net/cl-weblocks/timeline

3 points by mcxx 19y ago

I've taken a good look at Weblocks and I think I like what I see. Has anyone (besides CoffeMug) worked with or have any other feedback? Also, how mature/complete is Weblocks? I know it's new but that doesn't mean it's not ready for use. I'm shopping for a web framework now and I'd like to know if I should consider it. Most of the brains of my startup is data mining/composition, but I need a front-end to display those data.

coffeemug 19y ago
|Also, how mature/complete is Weblocks? Now that control flow is in, I have to implement two more things to consider Weblocks "ready" - more flexible UI presentation, and a default data store. The first issue is that current default UI generation is somewhat limited in terms of how much you can customize it in declarative manner, so people have to resort to writing custom presentation more often than necessary. Currently you'd have to hook weblocks to a data store on your own (some people have done that). I plan to make a pluggable system with a default store (probably CLSQL). Beyond that, people can contribute their own drivers to whatever store they wish. At this point weblocks will be very usable. There will be many little things. Some that come to mind: automatically bundling css and js into one big file instead of many small ones for performance, more declarative validators, specialized presentation for more commonly used data types, "persistant" actions (so that you can send a URL of a grid sorted in a certain way to your friend), etc. However, each of these can be implemented in a couple of days or less, so I don't consider these issues essential. After implementing the two major features described above, I'll move on to using Weblocks to write a commercial product. I'll deal with little issues as they come along.
- mrtron 19y ago
  I like where you are at right now, and your direction. When I get some free time I will test drive it.
- pchristensen 19y ago
  Sounds good. Do you have a timeframe for adding those pieces? It'll probably be early next year when I'll be ready for the front end of my app, and everything I've read about Weblocks makes me think it'd be a good match. I'd be interested in hearing about your commercial project as well. If you're in the mood to share any details, I'd love to hear about them here or by email (peter at pchristensen dot com).
  - mcxx 19y ago
    You can see the progress on the weblocks trac page: http://trac.common-lisp.net/cl-weblocks/timeline http://trac.common-lisp.net/cl-weblocks/timeline