>>>>> "Ralph" == Ralph Johnson <johnson at cs.uiuc.edu> writes:

Ralph> In general, before you try to build a framework for something, you
Ralph> should build some applications for that problem.  The right way to
Ralph> build a framework is to generalize from applications.

Ralph> See http://st-www.cs.uiuc.edu/~droberts/evolve.html

heh... I was about to type "and I've never been able to develop
a framework without implementing things at least *three* times" when
I started reading that URL.  Very nice.

You have to implement something *three* times before you start a framework
because otherwise you won't know what dials and levers are connected, and what
dials and levers are independent.  With three data points, you can at least
start to make a guess.

-- 
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn at stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!