[fusion-dev] RFC 1: Use OpenLayers.Class and other prototypecapabilities

[Julien-Samuel Lacroix]

Hi,

I think the OpenLayer team has always been really open to suggestion to 
become a standard library of webmapping component. It's a safe bet to 
rely on it. Planning of reusing OpenLayers.Control is also a great plus 
since it prevent us of duplicating the effort.

Are you thinking of using the Controls directly and adding them 
fusion-specific functions? or using OpenLayer.Handlers inside your own 
code like the Select widget was done?

About the initial problem, "Fusion is based on Jx and Jx is too big 
because of Prototype and Scriptaculous, if we remove Prototype, that 
will reduce the size". Will it be enough? What part of the 185kb is used 
by Prototype and Scriptacoulus?

Julien

Paul Spencer wrote:
> Jason,
> 
> that is correct.  In addition, it would make it much easier to  consider 
> moving to a different GUI framework such as ExtJS although  that is not 
> something that we are thinking of doing.
> 
> Based on my work with OpenLayers, much of the functionality that we  
> would be relying on was originally copied from Prototype (or at least  
> inspired by Prototype) when OpenLayers removed its own dependency on  
> Prototype.  While I haven't done a lot outside of OpenLayers with that  
> framework, it is working very well for OpenLayers and the API has not  
> changed in a while.  There is some current work being done on the Ajax  
> support in OpenLayers that will make it somewhat different from the  
> existing Prototype API but I believe it will still work for our needs  
> and may in fact improve it for us too :)
> 
> There is an alternative, which is to bring the essential parts of  
> Prototype (or equivalent) into the Fusion namespace so that we are not  
> dependent on anything (for that at least).  However, this would  
> duplicate code and functionality and I am not keen on maintaining any  
> more code in Fusion than necessary.  As time goes by, I am going to be  
> proposing even tighter integration with OpenLayers (think  Fusion.Widget 
> = OpenLayers.Control for instance).
> 
> An argument against tighter integration may be that we may want to  
> replace OpenLayers with another map management library at some point.   
> However, I don't see anything on the block that is going to compete  
> with OpenLayers at the moment and I don't feel that this is a bad move  
> on our part.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
> On 20-Mar-08, at 4:17 PM, Jason Birch wrote:
> 
>> So...
>>
>> This RFC is basically removing Fusion's explicit dependencies on
>> Prototype, so that Jx is free to move to a different framework without
>> disrupting Fusion?
>>
>> If so, sounds reasonable to me.
>>
>> Are these components in OpenLayers stable/enshrined enough that
>> switching to that implementation will not incur the same risk of
>> disruption?
>>
>> Jason
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: fusion-dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
>> [mailto:fusion-dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Paul Spencer
>> Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 12:49
>> To: fusion-dev at lists.osgeo.org
>> Subject: [fusion-dev] RFC 1: Use OpenLayers.Class and other
>> prototypecapabilities
>>
>> I realize that we don't have a PSC yet, however I would like to start
>> working as if we did have one and use the current membership of the
>> dev mailing list to discuss major changes to Fusion.  We will be
>> working to formalize a PSC as we grow the community around Fusion.  In
>> the mean time, I have a major change that I would like to get
>> community consensus on.
>>
>> If you are interested, please see the following RFC and comment on
>> this list.
>>
>> http://trac.osgeo.org/fusion/wiki/FusionRfc1
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Paul
>> __________________________________________
>>
>>    Paul Spencer
>>    Chief Technology Officer
>>    DM Solutions Group Inc
>>    http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> fusion-dev mailing list
>> fusion-dev at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/fusion-dev
> 
> 
> 
> __________________________________________
> 
>    Paul Spencer
>    Chief Technology Officer
>    DM Solutions Group Inc
>    http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> fusion-dev at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/fusion-dev
> 

-- 
Julien-Samuel Lacroix
Mapgears
http://www.mapgears.com/