[rt-users] RT 4

[Erik Peterson]

> -----Original Message-----
> > If, for the sake of argument, Best Practical were to rewrite RT,
what
> 
> > would you want to see in the new product?
> >
> > Think big.
> 
<snip>
> 
> I would also like to put a vote AGAINST ajax like improvements.  I
like
> the simplicity, and with the simplicity, the choices.  With straight
> HTML, I know it will work in Firefox, Dillo, Lynx, my PDA, etc.  Now
> cleaning up the HTML Themes, better CSS, bringing the appearance out
of
> the 1990's, etc.. that would be OK/GREAT and I understand that some is
> there in 3.6/7.  I have tried a number of ajax apps on slower
> computers/slower connections, less capable browsers, etc., and it is
> just not an enjoyable experience.  We have to remember that not all
> users are able to have a brand new computer, with a huge pipeline.

I would suggest that any AJAX implementation be a well-planned one
(unobtrusive, progressive, and configurable) like Hijax (see Jeremy
Keith's book: http://bulletproofajax.com/ if you're interested).  Well
implemented ajax or ahah solutions can actually speed up a site
considerably on slower machines/connections as long as they're done well
(but that's a big "if") since they can reduce the turn around on page
loads.  The trick is to avoid doing it just because it's cool and to do
it where it would help the process.
 
> Sorry for the negative, but there was so much positive for this one,
> and I am not 100% sold on the idea of ajax/ruby being as great as it
is
> hyped (I may be the only one :-?  )

I didn't see it as negative as much as cautionary and that's a good
thing.  I imagine that RT's rewrite would be based more on Jifty,
http://jifty.org/ since that's one of Jesse's other hobbies.
http://hiveminder.com is built on Jifty and works completely fine with
or without javascript and I can only imagine that it wouldn't be
tremendously difficult to have a preference of "turn off the cool
features" rather than needing to disable Javascript.

But your point is completely valid: "We have to remember that not all
users are able to have a brand new computer, with a huge pipeline." And
hopefully good coding will take that into account with or without ajax
on top.

My personal vote is for per-user configurable scrips and a more advanced
ui for creating/testing scrips.

_Erik


-- 
Erik Peterson
Education Development Center, Inc.
http://main.edc.org/