[Catalyst] So, what things make Catalyst cool for you?

[David Storrs]

On Oct 29, 2005, at 6:14 PM, Pedro Melo wrote:

> On Oct 29, 2005, at 10:04 PM, Sebastian Riedel wrote:
>> Am 29.10.2005 um 21:13 schrieb Matt S Trout:
>>> Given I appear to have volunteered to talk up Catalyst at the  
>>> London Web
>>> Frameworks Night (http://blog.unixdaemon.net/cgi-bin/blosxom.pl/ 
>>> 2005/10/27),
>>> I'd like to know what features are the "killer" ones for our  
>>> users and why?
>>
>> [...]
>> P.S.: You should make clear that we are no Rails clone, try to  
>> show them their weaknesses instead (Rails for example: no engine  
>> independent abstraction layer, no CPAN, no alternatives, no  
>> unicode, no I18n, slow, no multiple inheritance, no method meta  
>> data like our attributes, smaller userbase, less commercial  
>> support...). :)
>>
>
> If Catalyst is no RoR clone, don't mention RoR: use your time to  
> talk about Catalyst.

I agree with Pedro: don't spend time pointing at the weaknesses of  
others.  Instead, talk about our strengths.  Also, talk about our  
(perceived)? weaknesses and how we are addressing them.  Some  
suggestions:

Weakness:
---------
* Our documentation is inadequate

     ** We have set up a wiki which is growing slowly but steadily.
     ** We have an extremely active IRC channel with knowledgeable  
people around pretty much 24/7.  Most of them are willing & eager to  
help.
     ** We have rewritten the default screen to provide more  
information and pointers to valuable beginner material.
     ** We welcome patches and new documents.

Perceived Weakness:
-------------------
* Our code is based off of NEXT.pm instead of <preferred method of  
inheritance>

     ** Summarize any one of the relevant threads from the list.  Do  
it non-confrontationally in terms of "We believe it's better this way  
because...."


If you can't think of any weaknesses, take a list at the TODO list.

--Dks