> Hi Bob,
>
> You just inspired me to write down my vision and future plans for Aida,
> so let me start with that:
>
> Main *Aida vision* from the start is to extend the Smalltalk philosophy,
> elegance, simplicity, power to the web applications as well while
> preserving all those beauties of Smalltalk.
>
> And to be on the *bleeding edge of web technology* with Smalltalk all
> the time. Which we are. I'm most proud that initial architecture was set
> good enough to be adaptable through all that time since 1996 and that we
> are not stuck even now supporting the current HTML5 wave.
>
> And here are the plans. Short-term, long-term? Well, we'll see :)
>
> 1. *Documentation*! It seems Aida core features are stable enough now
>    that we can document it and that this documentation will last for a
>    while without needing to update it constantly;
>
> 2. More *HTML5*! like FileSystem, DragDrop, Video and Audio etc etc;
>
> 3. More *realtime*, actually realtime anything, everywhere. WebSocket
>    standard is now de-facto complete and in a year all browsers will
>    support it. What I mean by realtime anything, everywhere? Any data
>    you show everywhere on your web page will be updated in realtime,
>    that is, immediately when data changes. And this will be switched on
>    by default!
>
> 4 More *client*! That is, more processing moved to web client with
>   Amber Smalltalk. Here the end goal is to partition your app in
>   runtime where to run. All on server as now, all on client (and
>   offline), or parts on server, parts on client. Client parts are
>   "emitted" to Amber Smalltalk and sent to a client for execution;
>
> 5. More *local updating* at the client. On server only data is
>    updated while all dependent views are refreshed locally on client;
>
> 6. *Automatic forms building* out of domain model, with help of
>    forthcoming AidaFields by Nicolas Petton;
>
> 7. More *relational domain model* support;
>
> 8. More *JavaScript libraries* supported as Aida Addons;
>
> 9. Aida as provider of *REST-full web services* accessible from other
>    web or mobile apps
>
> 10.*Cloud* support, Aida apps as both as client as service provider in
>    the cloud;
>
> 11.*Aida hosting*, both free and commercial.
>
>
> Best regards
> Janko
>
>
>
> S, Robert Calco piše:
>> Janko,
>>
>> I was wondering if you could reveal any grand plans you might have for
>> the future of Aida?
>>
>> What I like about Aida compared to Seaside is its relative simplicity
>> and portability. Seaside uses features of Smalltalk that are not really
>> portable between smalltalks to do its magic (continuations and pragmas
>> being the big ones that I've noticed, which prevent it from being used
>> fully in Dolphin, for example).
>>
>> It feels to me like Aida doesn't try to reinvent too many wheels,
>> meaning it's a bit more accessible to people coming from, say, Rails,
>> like myself. It has relatively more steak than sizzle, whereas Seaside
>> has relatively more sizzle than steak. I like my steak rare ("still
>> twitching" is what I tell waitresses at restaurants), so I don't care
>> about sizzle so much. That said, my favourite way to prepare steak is
>> 'black and blue' -- but it takes a rather industrial-size furnace to
>> cook it that way, but, working for a charity, I usually only have a
>> couple matches and a little kindling to start my fire pit. ;)
>>
>> What I don't like about Aida is the documentation, which is a bit
>> scattered by topic and somewhat stream of consciousness. Seaside has
>> Aida beat hands-down in this department. There are books, well-designed
>> tutorials, lots of samples, etc. It's actually very hard, if you're me,
>> to ignore that big plus for Seaside.
>>
>> I think Aida needs a much better, much more in-depth tutorial, that
>> really highlights its best parts, and suggests where it's going to get
>> better over time. I am not sure I like all the parts of Aida included --
>> for example, I've been reviewing the (very involved) Parties/Roles
>> packages and it encroaches a lot on my domain model, meaning I either
>> have to use all of it or none of it. But maybe I have misinterpreted its
>> design? Maybe it's better than my slogging in the code has revealed, and
>> I should use it? Some documentation about the rationale for the
>> abstractions chosen and how they're implemented would be nice.
>>
>> What I'd like to see in Aida is a greater commitment to REST and maybe
>> XMLRPC API support (seems you're working on that one quite
>> aggressively), more of an MVP vs MVC pattern for rendering, and perhaps
>> support for rich web clients a la Amber (I see there is WebDAV support
>> in Aida, so perhaps you're already intending to go that route), and
>> better security (I really need to support HTTPS, and support API keys
>> securely). Seaside has done a good job in its HTML API, but Aida's
>> abstractions feel somewhat heavy (gazillions of methods). Some
>> refactoring of that seems like it could be good.
>>
>> Neither framework handles layouts, look-feel, or any of the design
>> intensive side of web development as nicely as I imagine it could be
>> done. This could be an area for huge win in Aida, as I see you've tried
>> to make it easy to reskin a site by supplying a new web style. However,
>> I tried doing this with the demo app and only just mucked stuff up.
>> Again, good documentation about this important area of implementation
>> and some idea of what the end-goal is for it would be awesome.
>>
>> I'm willing to contribute but I need to get up and running and confident
>> in what I'm doing still. It's been a bit of a ramp up. But I think I'll
>> do well with this choice for what I need to do. I would just like to
>> know what the future holds as I think there is still a lot of room for
>> innovation in web development, and it doesn't all have to be heretical
>> to be on the bleeding edge, so to speak. I'll feel better about Aida
>> knowing that it's roadmap is a good one.
>>
>> - Bob
>>
>>
>>
>>
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