Re: [Koha-devel] OpenBook

[Chris Cormack]

* Nicholas Stephen Rosasco <address@hidden> [010717 04:43]:
> The tool is impressive, but is definitely possessed of a few quirks --
> doubtless this derives from the Beta nature of the thing.

Yeah its nicely done ;-) 
> 
> How should we handle their ... it isn't a fork ... derivative work?

Tis a tricky thing, it pretty much fits the definition of a fork,
which is legal and fine under GPL, thus i have no issue with it. I
dont think they understand what a fork is, and thus are overly
defensive about it.

> 
> I've not "gotten my hands" dirty with our, or the Openbook code, enough to
> know if it would be possible to phase in additions from their back end.

I havent really looked at their backend, what I do know is that steve
has come quite far in marc support for koha, in that it can be
imported and modified now. Which as far as I can tell was the main
difference.

> 
> Alternately, could we replace the koha back end with theirs, in
> effect merging the two projects while preserving the Koha look and feel?
> That would get Koha full MARC functionality, especially if we wait for
> them to debug further.

I think the path Steve is on will lead to more robust code, and more
nicely defined cataloguing API. Having said that i havent got down
into the guts of the openbook code.

> 
> How seperate is the HTTP side from the database, etc side?
> 

Its PHP so quite tightly knit, there is quite a look of functionality
mixed with interface code. One of the main reasons I started work in
perl is that it is easier to achieve interface/code separation.

> I know I'm just blowing smoke, but I'd like to see us "get something" out
> of all the work they have put into their project, while  preserving the
> (currently) more stable/production grade Koha code as much
> as possible....

Oh for sure, so would I.
> 
> I still have some odds and ends I've seen in commercial applications that
> I feel would be logical additions to both of the projects.
> 
Yep, feel free to keep suggesting/nagging ... its how these projects
work :-)

> [Good heavens I wish the had merged more of the code back while they were
> in development.... rather than just rewriting everything.  Sigh.]
> 
You and me both, if only they had contributed to the cvs tree, instead
of forking their own project. But now if we can bring them back
together, that would be great.

Chris

-- 
Chris Cormack                                                     Programmer
025 500 789                                        Katipo Communications Ltd
address@hidden                                          www.katipo.co.nz