david wrote:But installing and setting up a few lines of configuration is not always such a small deal either. Always a learning curve, a new place to keep track of things, a separate piece to keep upgraded, SVN's to setup, etc -- that has to be accounted for. Just because something is free or already done doesn't mean it's free to the user.
Nothing is totally free of course, but if you never start using technologies that can give your solution a huge boost in productivity, then you'll get stuck with yesterday's technology. Is that what you are recommending?
Based on that principle of shying from a certain learning curve, even when there are proven benefits, you would still be using a text editor and writing static html for your web 1.0 sites then, is that it?
I'd say to users "try Velocity" as soon as you can - it's not that difficult anyway, and it will open your dev practices to such a range of extended options that the 'learning curve' will be well invested in no time!
I've been involved in all sorts of projects where the use of Velocity has given users the opportunity to get to the next level, so when I see people who don't know about it, I direct them to it, because once they've mastered the basics they will be empowered with a range of powerful techniques that will generally make their solution better.
As to your quote, I've never said Open Source was to be free, and costs nothing, so I don't get your point...
david wrote:If you're using web services all day long every day -- then I think that the Velocity route makes a lot of sense. If not, it is just another thing that you have to keep track of and when you come back to it three months later (like when you're installing a new server or needing to grab another simple web service) you have to figure it all out again.
This is an important distinction I think.
So based on that distinction, I suppose you are saying to users interested in your frameworks that they should not bother, but do it themselves because they can obviously do all of that in Servoy, right?
Why going through the learning curve of your frameworks, right?