Future of limelight
toovy
limelight really looks cool, no question about that. I'd really like
to use it but there are some open questions.
1.) is development really going on? I mean, will this project be
updated if jruby is updated (e.g. the last post was about limelight
not really working with 1.5, now we have 1.6). Will there be new
features, etc.?
2.) will this tool ever be documented in a way that someone NOT from
8thlight can learn how to use it?
3.) I saw the distribution modes, but I don't want anybody to install
limelight before he can run my apps. In theory it should be possible
to create a package including jruby+limelight+app. Is that working?
What about gem bundling?
The question I really have in mind is: What is the future of
limelight? As far as I can judge it would be a pain to give up the
project.
Thanks for the answers in advance.
Best Regards,
toovy
Micah Martin
Great questions. I definitely understand your concerns so let me answer your questions as best I can. See answers inline below.
On Feb 23, 2011, at 10:59 AM, toovy wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> limelight really looks cool, no question about that. I'd really like
> to use it but there are some open questions.
>
> 1.) is development really going on? I mean, will this project be
> updated if jruby is updated (e.g. the last post was about limelight
> not really working with 1.5, now we have 1.6). Will there be new
> features, etc.?
Yes. Development is on going with Limelight. Underway right now is a fairly major architecture change that not only improved Limelight with JRuby but also allows developers to create Limelight productions using Clojure. It also paves the way for building productions in Java or any other JVM language. This is way the gap in releases has been so large. It is my hope that a new release will be available within a couple months. The new release will almost certainly utilize the latest release of JRuby.
> 2.) will this tool ever be documented in a way that someone NOT from
> 8thlight can learn how to use it?
Hmm.. I'm wondering why you would ask this. It's true that 8th Lighters can walk up to each other's desks to get help with Limelight, but there is published documentation. We've built the LimelightDoc production to provide documentation to the public, and it will get more love as Limelight evolves. There's also this email list which I monitor closely. If you'd like I'll give you my chat alias so you can ask me questions directly.
We definitely don't want exclude anyone from using Limelight. If you have ideas on how to make Limelight seem more accessible to the public, I'm all ears.
> 3.) I saw the distribution modes, but I don't want anybody to install
> limelight before he can run my apps. In theory it should be possible
> to create a package including jruby+limelight+app. Is that working?
> What about gem bundling?
Yeah, we've done this before a couple times. It would be great to have a tool to automatically build installers or app packages for a given production, but for now, it is possible to do manually. And it's not hard. Besides building the OS specific application structure, you basically just need to build a new entry point (main) that calls into Limelight.Main. I can help you with this. Maybe we could use the opportunity to figure out how the automated app packager should work and build it together.
> The question I really have in mind is: What is the future of
> limelight? As far as I can judge it would be a pain to give up the
> project.
Limelight is here to stay and it's only going to get better over time.
Micah
Roger Pack
>> limelight before he can run my apps. In theory it should be possible
>> to create a package including jruby+limelight+app. Is that working?
>> What about gem bundling?
raw maybe?
-r
toovy
to recap everything for me:
1.) development lives
2.) I must have missed the LimelightDoc production, looking at the
"learn" site I know why - it is divided into 3 headers
(List,Development,Links) - the small text besides the icon is pretty
hidden and also - as there is no link - the text seems to be
uninteresting ... whatever, probably my fault ;) - but maybe you
should redesign the page and create a header like "Main documentation"
or "Getting started", where you mention the limelightdoc production.
Also at this stage no one knows what a "production" is... Just some
thoughts, no criticism.
3.) Sounds good, maybe I can try raw (thx Roger), but for now it is
enough for me to know that it is possible.
At the moment I'm just evaluating, but I think I'll give limelight a
try. I guess I'll come back then.
Thanks a lot for your comments. :)
Best Regards,
toovy
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