I started the Satyr project for a lot of reasons. Some of
them are documented below.
- To Learn
- What does it
take to create, deploy, and maintain a real world smart client
application?
- I hope to discover
the strengths and weaknesses of the various P&P application blocks.
- Is the 20+ MB
framework really a roadblock for compelling applications.
- I'm curious about
the kinds of interoperability problems I will face doing Xml/WSDL design
first.
- What are the
costs and benefits of choosing Xml purity over serialization simplicity?
- What is the
right balance for TDD in a real world application?
- What is the
best way to deploy HttpHandlers and HttpModules?
- To Experiment
- There are
many ways to add extensibility hooks to an application and I'd like to
try a few ideas that are rattling around my head.
- How can I
provide simple Slash-Dot APIs[1] over well specified, extensible, and
easy to validate Xml documents using the tools available today? How will
tomorrow's tools - X# and Yukon - make this easier?
- What is the
pragmatic balance between Xml and Relational models? What affect will Yukon and other Xml aware databases have on that balance?
- To Sell
- Satyr will be
a living resume.
- Demonstrate
the power of smart clients, extensible Xml, and web services to
development teams. Many developers would love to develop smart client
applications. Many users prefer smart client applications when they have
to use an application frequently to manage non trivial data. Decision
makers aren't convinced though because they haven't seen a successful
smart client application that solves the deployment nightmares that drove
them to the "all web apps, all the time" mentality.
- To Teach
- With any luck
one or two other people might learn something from Satyr.
- To provide a
useful foundation that others can build on
- I have no
desire to compete with the big boys. I'll never be able to provide the
same level of support and I'll make that very clear from the beginning. I
would like to provide a clean foundation that others can build on though.
[1] http://www.douglasp.com/2003/05/12.html#a284