[OpenLayers-Users] slimming OL

[P Kishor]

On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 1:36 PM, Christopher Schmidt
<crschmidt at metacarta.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 09, 2010 at 01:06:50PM -0600, P Kishor wrote:
>> On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 1:02 PM, Wendell Turner <wendell at enflight.com> wrote:
>> > On Tue, Mar 09, 2010 at 10:04:44AM -0500, Christopher Schmidt wrote:
>> >> On Tue, Mar 09, 2010 at 08:26:36AM -0600, P Kishor wrote:
>> >> > On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 8:23 AM, Alexandre Dube <adube at mapgears.com> wrote:
>> >> > > Hi,
>> >> > >
>> >> > > You could use OpenLayerer to do so :
>> >> > >
>> >> > > http://openlayerer.appspot.com/
>> >> >
>> >> > Wow! This is very cool (and should be advertised more prominently). Of
>> >> > course, now I have another problem -- way too many choices, and not
>> >> > enough guidance to choose from them.
>> >>
>> >>   http://docs.openlayers.org/library/deploying.html#custom-build-profiles
>> >>
>> >> "Once you have included these files, you should add more files to the
>> >> ‘[include]’ section of the file. The files listed here should be the list of
>> >> files containing any class you use in your application. You can typically find
>> >> these classes by looking through your code for any cases where ‘new
>> >> OpenLayers.ClassName()’ is used."
>> >
>> > Cool.  I tried that, and was able to reduce my OpenLayers.js
>> > to 371K (or 52%, I'm using a lot of Controls and Handlers).
>> >
>> > Everything works, but this:  when modifying a LineString,
>> > the line turns blue with boxes on it (as usual).  The
>> > LineString can be modified.  However clicking away from the
>> > line does not un-highlight it.  You must click on the Pan or
>> > Draw icon to un-highlight the line.  I see no error messages
>> > in the error console or firebug.  What items are missing in
>> > my custom OL build?
>> >
>>
>>
>> this is exactly the kind of thing that would stop me from attempting
>> to slim OL based on my 2nd-person-removed understanding of how it
>> works.
>
> It's responses like this that discourage me from trying to respond and
> help users on the mailing list. I brought up specific responses to a
> number of your concerns, and your response is to ignore all of that,
> take a followup -- which, so far as I can tell, is not actually related
> to the custom build -- and respond in a negative tone to that.
>
> I apologize for trying to help explain how things worked, or pointing
> out our existing documentation on the topic; in the future, I'll
> remember that trying to help will just be ignored in favor of sniping
> at documentation.
>

Oh, Chris. My apologies for not responding specifically to your
detailed note. I didn't respond because it was so complete, with
detailed explanation. With respect to explaining the dependencies in
OL, it left nothing further to be asked.

My response to Wendell's post was from the point of view of a user.
You think like a developer, and that too, developer of a rather
complex piece of code that you are intimately familiar with. I speak
as a user of your code. I am not developing OL. I am developing *with*
OL. Hence, not only my familiarity with its innards is very low, it is
likely going to remain very low -- my incentive is only in making my
projects with it, not necessarily making OL itself better, easier
(although, if I end up doing that, that is gravy).

>From the outside, looking in, I want a tool that is easy to
understand, easy to deploy, easy to support, yadda yadda. OL wins on
many of these counts. But, it is a lot of moving parts. I don't have
the wherewithal to understand the working of all those moving parts,
so I take the whole kitchen sink. As a user, I want to *believe* in
what the developer says -- if the developer says, "This tool can make
your fonts bold and your commas curly, well, I want to believe that."
If I turn around and say, "Well, but your tool is very heavy," the
developer can say to me, "But, you do have a choice... if you just
take the cap off, you can make the fonts bold, and if you just take
the screws out, you can make the commas curly." Now, I take the cap,
because I never want to make my commas curly. But, the tool is so
complex that now my m-dashes are replaced with hyphens... you get the
drift... in other words, my response to Wendell was not a complaint
about OL, but a comment on its complexity that may prevent me to
adequately pursue the advice that you gave me in such detail.

Wrt "sniping at documentation," yes, I have done that. Many others
have as well. We see wondrous things that OL can do, but we are unable
to replicate them, or, we want to do even more wondrous things, but
don't know how to proceed. That is when we complain. I know it
probably sounds horrible to you... "look at these jokers... never
helped out with a line of code in developing OL, but here they are,
carping about the docs." But, trust me... I am here on this list
because I like OL, and want to be successful with it. And, in my
success is going to be OL's success.

Once again, my apologies for sounding negative to you, and for not
responding to your detailed reply. In any case, don't let this stop
you from helping others.


> Best of luck.
>
> Regards,
> --
> Christopher Schmidt
> MetaCarta
>



-- 
Puneet Kishor http://www.punkish.org
Carbon Model http://carbonmodel.org
Charter Member, Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org
Science Commons Fellow, http://sciencecommons.org/about/whoweare/kishor
Nelson Institute, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu
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