[OpenLayers-Dev] ship only with minimal build for 2.12

[Tom MacWright]

So the problems are:


   1. Users want instant download gratification
   2. Downloading just OpenLayers.js makes all of the images break, and the
   documentation around fixing this is weak and hard to find
   3. We'd rather people use lightweight builds & local hosting

So

   1. Improve the OpenLayers.org website with a clear download link and a
   clear warning against using the 'hosted version'
   2. Make that download contain easy-to-read documentation that explains
   what's in OpenLayers.js and OpenLayers.light.js
   3. Document how to get controls working correctly on your site after
   downloading the library.

Other libraries don't have this problem, because people can clearly see how
and why to download them: see jquery.org, backbonejs.org, etc: the download
links are visible. Not on OpenLayers.org.

The only libraries that recommend CDN-based hosting are those with stable
servers and a good reason to do that, like Google Maps. OpenLayers has
neither - openlayers.org goes down often and there's no great reason why
people should be using a CDN-hosted version - a cross-domain cache isn't a
very strong reason.

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 1:54 PM, Peter Robins
<openlayers at peterrobins.co.uk>wrote:

> what do you mean by 'shipping'? AFAICS, the example you quote may have
> just done
> "wget http://openlayers.org/api/OpenLayers.js > mycopyofol.js"
> or similar. I'd agree it's not a sensible thing to do - either  make
> your own build, or use the hosted version which is cacheable across
> many websites - but I don't see how you can stop people doing it.
> _______________________________________________
> Dev mailing list
> Dev at lists.osgeo.org
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>
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